The man convicted of shooting and killing two Princeton residents and attempting to kill a third had his bid for a re-trial denied.
John Ike Koopmans, was found guilty of two counts of second degree murder and one count of attempted murder after a Supreme Court jury trial in April, 2015 and received two life sentences in October, 2015.
Related: Koopmans found guilty
Koopmans claim, filed with the B.C. Court of Appeal, alleged the trial judge erred when not advising the jury of the reliability of evidence from a disreputable Crown witness “with an alleged history of involvement with drugs.” The appeal ruled that the judge appropriately exercised her discretion to not give the warning.
The victim of the attempted murder, Bradley Martin, is the witness named in the claim. He was shot once by Koopmans, before fleeing the scene.
Related: Survivor in Princeton shooting testifies
Koopmans was convicted for the second degree murders of Robert Keith Wharton, 43, and Rosemary Fox, 32 in Princeton on March 30, 2013.
Related: Accused denies any involvement with shooting
Koopmans also claimed the judge made a mistake by not advising the jury of the option of a lesser included offence in the attempted murder charge and “confusing the jury by engaging in serial revision and clarification of the charge.”
The document from the B.C. Court of Appeal notes that Justice Miriam Maisonville “did not err in her charge to the jury. Assault is not necessarily an included offence in attempted murder. The judge’s method of revising and clarifying the charge was not so confusing as to undermine the verdicts in the case.”
Three Supreme Court justices agreed the appeal should be dismissed.
