William Head Institution is shown through a security fence in Victoria, B.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. A sentencing hearing is scheduled to start today in B.C. Supreme Court for James Lee Busch, one of the two inmates who escaped from a minimum-security prison and killed a man.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Lam
VANCOUVER – Friends and relatives of murder victim Martin Payne say they are haunted by the actions of “two selfish, reckless” people who chose their victim because his home was near the prison where the men escaped.
A B.C. Supreme Court jury found James Lee Busch guilty of first-degree murder late Wednesday.
At his sentencing hearing today, Justice David Crossin called the killing cold-blooded and unspeakable, and sentenced Busch to life, without chance of parole for 25 years.
Payne, who was 60, was murdered on July 8, 2019, a day after Busch and Zachary Armitage walked away from the minimum-security William Head prison, located eight kilometres from the victim’s home in Metchosin, west of Victoria.
His daughter, Calla Payne, told the sentencing hearing that her dad was a constant source of love and support, and the decisions made by the two selfish, reckless men took that away from her.
Both men pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder as the trial began on Nov. 14, but Armitage entered a guilty plea two weeks later without the jury present, and the trial continued for Busch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2022.
