Pearson admitted he was with Denovan when Obina was fatally shot on Nov. 3, 2017
The Mr. Big confession murder suspect Jessy James Pearson gave to an undercover Calgary police officer should not have been ruled inadmissible, Alberta’s top court ruled Monday.
And in a separate, but related ruling, the same three-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel upheld the conviction of Pearson’s co-accused, Jayme Scott Denovan for first-degree murder in the gun-for-hire killing of Calgarian Ronnie Olara Obina.
Appeal justices Kevin Feehan, Anne Kirker and Willie de Wit said Pearson would have to face a second trial after finding Justice Jim Eamon erred in ruling his confession in the case to be inadmissible.
And they said Eamon made no errors in instructing jurors on how to assess the reliability of Denovan’s confession, in which he admitted ambushing Obina in a northwest alley and shooting him in the head.
After Eamon ruled Peason’s statement was unlawfully obtained by police, then-Crown prosecutor Doug Taylor invited the Court of King’s Bench to acquit him based on the remaining evidence, while maintaining the right to appeal his admissibility ruling.
The appeal judges agreed with prosecutor Andrew Barg that Eamon erred in disallowing the evidence to go before jurors.
Pearson admitted he was with Denovan when Obina was fatally shot on Nov. 3, 2017.
In a Mr. Big operation targeting Denovan, he told officers Pearson was a close, lifelong friend and provided his name to an undercover officer. The officer then asked Denovan to arrange a meeting with Pearson.
He was then transported to Regina to meet with Denovan.
The appeal judges said that while there was some evidence of vulnerability by Pearson at earlier times, he was not in a vulnerable state when he spoke to Mr. Big in October 2020.
“The important consideration is Mr. Pearson’s personal circumstances at the time that he gave the confession,” they said.
“During the voir dire in this case, the evidence was that at the time of the confession, Mr. Pearson had a home, a business, a family and had separated himself from his past life. If his life was significantly different, this could be he was less vulnerable to providing a false confession.”
They also noted there was minimal prejudicial effect of the operation on Pearson.
“Mr. Pearson did not join the (fake) criminal organization and was not involved in the criminal activities except for the circumstances of the offence and trying to cover up his involvement.”
They ordered Pearson to turn himself into custody at the Calgary Remand Centre within 24 hours.