Mike on Crime (22 page)

Lamb had also dismissed his lawyer, Evan Roitenberg, and was planning to represent himself. Lamb and Roitenberg had repeatedly clashed in recent months because of Lamb's continued desire to speak to a reporter.

Police and justice officials declined to comment publicly, citing the sensitive nature of the probe. But several sources said there remained much work to be done to verify much of the detailed information that had come their way. However, officials were proceeding cautiously because Lamb was a highly intelligent manipulator.

Homicide investigators had spoken with Lamb several times in recent weeks and planned to continue doing so. But those meetings provided more frustration than results. “He's very much... a chronic BSer. However he does come through when the timing is right,” said a veteran police officer. “And sifting through the BS is what it's all about with these types, I guess.”

Lamb repeatedly accused homicide investigators of having “serious tunnel vision” as it pertained to some of the cases of missing and slain women. “They're not interested in veering off the path they think... even if it means closure,” he said. “I'm not saying I had anything to do with these five. I'm saying I have information. I'm denying any involvement with anything.”

Lamb denied he was trying to “bargain” with police, saying he expected nothing in return. And he said he didn't want the public to think of him as a “media whore” who craved the spotlight. He then went on to conduct a series of interviews with local TV reporters later in the day.

Not everyone agreed with the way police were conducting the investigation. A recently retired Winnipeg homicide investigator said officers had dropped the ball in their investigation. James Jewell said it was a “travesty” police hadn't acted with more urgency since their initial arrest and interrogation of Lamb last summer. “Inexperience, lack of direction, lack of courage or combinations of all the above created significant delays for investigators who so desperately wanted to cut the red tape and get down to the business of a second interrogation,” Jewell said in a public blog post. “It seems to me, incompetence of this magnitude should come with some sort of consequence(s).”

Jewell said police owed it to the public and victims' families to quickly get to the truth. “Sins of the past aside, the time has come for the police service to realize that a thorough debrief of alleged serial killer Shawn Lamb is in order. It's time to cut the red tape and end the debate regarding process and protocol. Sometimes, you just have to dance with the devil,” he said.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 27, 2013

“JUST ADDING TO THE PAIN”

Column by Lindor Reynolds in
The Winnipeg Free Press

Accused serial killer Shawn Lamb is tormenting the families of Manitoba's slain and missing women by claiming to have information that would help solve at least five of their cases. He says police aren't taking him seriously and he's threatening to call the families personally.

Winnipeg police are taking Lamb seriously enough to have him locked up for the slayings of Tanya Nepinak, Carolyn Sinclair and Lorna Blacksmith. And, despite what a man with a three-decade-long rap sheet says, they're closely examining his latest set of allegations.

Bernadette Smith, the sister of missing woman Claudette Osborne, says officers from the Project Devote task force called her Monday to give her a head's up Lamb was claiming to have valuable information. She says her family isn't holding its breath he's telling the truth.

“We're just kind of waiting it out. We know he's kind of an attention-seeker,” Smith says. “He says he wants to give these families closure. Why grow a conscience now? I just think he's talking out his ass.”

She says police assured her they were taking Lamb's claims seriously and looking into them.

Kyle Kematch, brother of missing woman Amber Guiboche, is frustrated with Lamb's apparent confessions and retractions to the media.

“It's honestly f -- up,” says Kematch. “Is he saying this to cause more pain? It's getting me angry. I don't understand what we've done to deserve this.”

Joyce Nepinak, the mother of Tanya Nepinak, says her family is shocked by the twist.

“We don't know what to think. Whether he's lying or not, you have to get to the bottom of it. If it happens to be true, moms can get some closure. We need that. I don't even know where my daughter is.”

Gail Nepinak, Tanya's sister, says Lamb is “playing mind games.”

“He's heartless. He's torturing us,” she says. “He just wants publicity. He just wants the attention.”

Community activist Chickadee Richard says it's possible Lamb does have more information to offer.

She believes he didn't act alone in the killings of Nepinak, Sinclair and Blacksmith. She thinks others in the community are preying on aboriginal people and there may be more than one serial killer.

“The families know that Shawn Lamb, he has no moral conscience. He says he wants to connect with the families. Why's he doing this? What's he after?”

Richard says the large number of missing and slain women speak to how aboriginal women are viewed.

“There's racism here. It's like these women don't matter.”

Shawn Lamb seems a little short in the attributes column. He's been convicted of assaulting police officers, uttering threats, robbery, carrying weapons, forgery, possessing stolen property, break-and-enter and breaching numerous court orders.

He got 19 months in jail, in addition to nearly 14 months of time already served, plus three years of supervised probation. His crimes, according to a story by
Free Press
reporter Mike McIntyre, included mugging a young mother of her purse, threatening to stab another man for his beer, stealing a car and passing numerous bad cheques.

He was arrested for the murders of the three women in June 2012.

Winnipeg police believe Lamb is a highly intelligent manipulator. He's cunning and he's likely bored silly sitting in jail. He says he has film and keepsakes to back up his latest claims. He's got the police hopping and shattered families hoping for resolution.

Our police aren't ignoring him. They can't. After the debacle in the case of B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton, no law-enforcement team would risk slacking off and miss the chance to solve these killings.

Project Devote has to take every tip seriously, even if the source is an accused serial killer who may be acting out of spite or tedium.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 14, 2013

He was a master manipulator, a sociopath who craved attention and took pleasure in the pain of others. So you can imagine the disgust among senior Manitoba justice officials who took a long, hard look at the case against accused serial killer Shawn Lamb and realized one alarming fact. Lamb held all the cards. They would be forced to play the game by his rules. The end result was a so-called deal with the devil.

Lamb appeared in court, where he pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter for the deaths of Carolyn Sinclair, 25, and Lorna Blacksmith, 18. Second-degree murder charges were dropped. He was given a 20-year sentence, with a requirement that he serve at least half before being eligible for parole. A “light at the end of the tunnel” is how defence lawyer Martin Glazer described it.

Extensive details of the investigation emerged publicly for the first time. The Crown revealed how Lamb, arrested for a sexual assault back in June 2012, stunned police by telling them he knew where to find a body. Police were led to Blacksmith's remains at the rear of a vacant home at 797 Simcoe St., partially covered by pallets and a metal cot. Her body was wrapped in plastic and in an advanced state of decomposition. Medical officials could not determine a cause of death.

He eventually implicated himself in Sinclair's death, which police had already been investigating since her remains were found March 31, 2012, wrapped in plastic inside a duffle bag near a garbage can on Notre Dame Avenue. Lamb admitted to both homicides, describing exactly how they went down.

He met Sinclair on Dec. 18, 2011, said they purchased crack cocaine and then went back to his apartment at 822 Notre Dame Ave. But the night took a violent turn when Sinclair grabbed the remaining drugs and locked herself in the bathroom. Lamb began smashing the door with an axe handle until she opened it. “What the fuck are you doing... why are you stealing this?” he asked. Lamb then struck Sinclair in the head several times with the handle, and then strangled her until she was lifeless. Lamb smoked some more crack, bought beer and eventually passed out. He finally disposed of Sinclair's body a few days later.

Blacksmith was killed in a similar drug-related dispute, just three weeks after Sinclair's slaying. Lamb claimed she grabbed his phone to call a drug dealer, prompting him to violently attack. Blacksmith was knocked to the ground and choked with an electrical cord. Lamb claimed he tried to revive her but she was already dead. So he wrapped her body in plastic stolen from a nearby construction site, and then left her behind the home on Simcoe.

Lawyers told court how there was no solid forensic evidence against Lamb. The only real case against him came from his own statement. “There were no eyewitnesses to the killings and despite the best efforts of police, only limited forensic evidence is available to be put before the court,” Crown attorney Sheila Leinburd told Court of Queen's Bench Justice Rick Saull. “Consequently, the description of the killing of both women is taken solely from... Lamb's statement,” said Leinburd. However, there were serious concerns it would hold up to a legal challenge. That's because of a controversial exchange of cash between police and Lamb. This marked the first time a payment had been mentioned. But no other details were presented in court, raising even more questions.

Defence lawyer Martin Glazer negotiated for months with justice officials, saying Lamb would only plead guilty to manslaughter. Keep the murder charge and they would see them in court, where convictions were anything but a guarantee. “This is, in fact, the quintessential instance of a true quid pro quo [meaning ‘this for that'],” Leinburd told court.

Glazer said it was obvious Lamb's statement would have been tossed out at trial. “Police were faced with a windfall because they had no clue he was involved. He provided the answers they needed... today he stands up in court and stands by his confession,” said Glazer. “In effect, it is a life sentence. He will be in his 70s when he does get released—if he lives that long.”

Naturally, news of the plea deal was not received well by the public. Social media lit up with outrage. Families of the victims erupted in anger. Even those involved in the prosecution held their noses.

“We're not happy at all. But you have to look at the big picture,” mumbled one veteran cop.

No doubt their uneasiness was magnified on this day, when Lamb tried to hijack his own sentencing hearing. It was a pathetic, but not entirely surprising, performance by a man who did the “woe-is-me” act better than anyone. When given his chance to speak, Lamb stood up and claimed he wanted to withdraw his guilty pleas after the word “sociopath” was used to describe him in a report he said he never saw or read. “That is enough to make me want to rescind my pleas,” Lamb said.

Glazer ultimately talked some sense into his client. Lamb then continued with his speech. “I wanted to take responsibility. Apologizing isn't going to do any good. An apology is nothing. It doesn't change what happened. I am sorry, and I mean that. I have empathy and I have remorse, for sure. I've taken responsibility,” he said. “I left the door open for my addiction to take control. I grew up damaged and lost. Under the influence of drugs and alcohol... I turn into a monster at times.”

It was the type of insight you rarely see from offenders, and typically not expressed as eloquently as Lamb did. And on the surface you may have wished to applaud him for his candour. Problem is, Lamb had pulled out this same spiel countless times. His comments on this day were eerily similar to ones he'd impressed many other judges with, convincing them this poor, lost soul was worthy of yet another chance at redemption and freedom. It was apparent to anyone in the courtroom that Lamb loved being in the position of power.

“You're a fucking monster, take some responsibility,” screamed one of the victims' family members in court. He was promptly ushered out by sheriffs, clearly at his wit's end being forced to watch Lamb relish the spotlight.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2013

It was the day after the deal went down. And now Winnipeg police were forced to explain their role in what many saw as a botched investigation and prosecution. At a hastily called news conference, police said desperation to bring closure to grieving families drove them to pay off Lamb—a move that was now under legal scrutiny and could have sunk the case against him. Full details emerged of a $1,500 deal, one day after Lamb's defence lawyer first raised eyebrows by accusing police of crossing a line and essentially buying a confession from his client, which likely would have been ruled inadmissible at trial.

Supt. Danny Smyth of the criminal investigations unit defended the decision, saying officers had the tough job of trying to break open a high-profile and sensitive investigation. “This is an extraordinary measure we considered,” said Smyth. “The Winnipeg Police Service is sensitive to the fact there are many missing and murdered women in Manitoba and in Canada. These investigations are a priority for us. In this case, the investigators explored all available options in the interest of justice and public safety.”

Police outlined in detail how their contact and payment to Lamb came about. “I would say this is very unusual. In my time, this is the first time I can recall us going to that kind of a measure,” said Smyth. Lamb was initially arrested on a sexual assault unrelated to any homicide. While being processed, “Mr. Lamb indicated he knew where a body was. This statement triggered a homicide investigation,” said Smyth. In fact, court documents spelled out the scenario in greater detail.