Surrey murderer Russell Bidesi has lost an appeal of his conviction for shooting Bradley McPherson to death at an after-hours house party in Newton on Christmas Eve, 2011.
Bidesi challenged his Feb. 16, 2018 second-degree murder conviction based on his lawyer’s argument that the trial judge had “speculated improperly” concerning the credibility of an eye-witness’s testimony, thereby “improperly” allowing the Crown prosecutor to introduce a new theory in reply. But Justice David Harris, of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia in Vancouver, upheld the verdict and dismissed his appeal.
“I am not persuaded that the judge materially misapprehended the evidence,” Harris found.
Justices Gail Dixon and Peter Voith concurred.
Bidesi must serve at least 15 years in prison before he is eligible to apply for parole.
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McPherson, 28, was shot in the head, at about 3 a.m., in the living room at the party.
“Forensic evidence established he was shot in the back of the head from about six inches away. Evidence also established that he had just answered his phone when he was shot. The only issue at trial was whether Mr. Bidesi was the shooter,” Harris noted in his June 11 reasons for judgment.
“The shooting was preceded by a confrontation precipitated by the allegation that Mr. Bidesi had acted disrespectfully to the host and the other partygoers by urinating into the bathtub and onto the floor in a bathroom.”
Roughly 40 people had been at the party, the court heard. Bidesi was 26 years old at the time.
He is also serving a 14-year sentence for manslaughter, for the shooting death of Kacey Rogers, 31, in Whalley. Rogers was shot dead at his duplex home in the 14000-block of Grosvenor Road on Feb. 26, 2012 during what homicide police described as a planned home invasion.
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