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Guy Smith trial continues in Williams Lake Supreme Court

A manslaughter trial into the death of Likely resident Gary Price four years ago continued this week in Williams Lake Supreme Court and is scheduled to last until Friday, July 28.
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Photo submitted. Likely resident Gary Price (shown above) went missing in the spring of 2013 and his remains were discovered on a private property in Sept. 2014. Guy Smith is facing two charges relating to his death and is on trial in Supreme Court in Williams Lake.

A manslaughter trial into the death of Likely resident Gary Price four years ago continued this week in Williams Lake Supreme Court and is scheduled to last until Friday, July 28.

Guy William Smith is charged with one count of manslaughter and one count of interference with a dead body.

Price was 60 at the time of his death. His family first reported him missing on March 3, 2013.

His body was discovered in September 2014 in a well on a private property in Likely.

On Monday morning, June 19 Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church ruled on the voir dire application made by Smith’s Defence lawyer Richard Kaiser on the first day of the trial, Monday June 5, that challenged an Information to Obtain (ITO) report prepared by the RCMP based on the initial search warrant police used to search Smith’s property following Price’s disappearance.

Outside the court room Monday, Crown Counsel Joseph Temple told the Tribune Church ruled on the voir dire, determining that Crown “gets to keep our evidence.”

During the afternoon session, Crown and Defence cross-examined Price’s sister Gwen Reese and RCMP Const. Joshua Robert Cropley.

Reese testified she contacted RCMP dispatch worried about the whereabouts of her brother on March 3, 2013 after it was brought to her attention on March 1, that Price’s abandoned vehicle was seen parked on the Keithley Creek Road, and she’d learned he had missed two appointments.

Initially she called Cariboo Memorial Hospital, some auto body shops, Canadian Tire and a few hotels to see if Price was staying there, wondering if he had gone into Williams Lake to buy parts for his truck.

“This is the last thing I would have imagined,” she said of her brother’s death.

Reese told the court her last contact with Price was in January 2013.

Price lived in a cabin at Cariboo Lake and only had a satellite phone and most of the time called her from the pay phone in Likely, Reese said.

Cropley told the court he was working the night shift on March 3, 2013 when he returned Reese’s call to dispatch and gathered information about her brother from her.

Cropley testified he and Const. William Gale left the Williams Lake detachment at 10 p.m. to drive to Likely.

On the way it began to snow heavily, he recalled.

The two constables drove straight to Keithley Creek Road and at about 11:34 p.m. located Price’s white pickup truck, parked in a cut out on the left side of the road facing east bound.

When asked by Crown Counsel Alexandra Pace what happened next, Cropley said they looked around the truck and the ditch and did not see any signs that anyone had walked away from the truck.

Inside the truck they found a jacket, a six-pack of beer, a toothbrush, some outdoor equipment and personal effects. There was a paper note in the driver’s side door handle from someone offering assistance if Price needed it.

The constables then drove to the Yank’s Peak parking lot, stopping at two residences on the way. At the parking lot they found a snowmobile parked on the right hand side beside a small structure, covered with a tarp and looked stationary.

On their way back toward Likely they stopped and talked to a motorist who suggested the officers go to Guy Smith’s residence at the top of Rosette Lake Road.

The resident told them Smith’s place is where people would go if they needed help or a place to stay, Cropley said.

They arrived at Smith’s residence at 1:30 a.m. March 4 and parked the police vehicle at the bottom of the driveway.

When they knocked on the door they heard a dog barking and then Smith came to the door and opened it standing in between the door and the door jam, trying to keep the dog inside.

“We told him why we were there and asked if he had seen Gary,” Cropley told the court. “He said ‘not in a month or so’.”

Cropley said they asked Smith the nature of his relationship with Price but there was no response.

After leaving Smith’s residence, Cropley and Gale drove down and over the bridge out of Likely, but when they were contacted by Williams Lake RCMP Staff Sgt. Ken Brissard, he directed them to wait because Search and Rescue was coming with a set of snowmobiles to meet them there to travel to Price’s place to check his cabin.

They drove back to the Yank’s Peak parking lot and then travelled by snowmobiles for about half an hour down a small trail to reach what Cropley described as a small fishing resort, with multiple cabins, but no one was staying in them at the time.

No one was inside the cabin and there was a lock on the outside of the door, Cropley said, noting after that point they drove back to Williams Lake.

Cropley returned to Likely on March 7, 2013 to conduct a road check and attend residences to make inquiries. When asked by Pace how many people he interviewed, Cropley said seven.

Defence asked Cropley if he made any further inquiries after his first telephone conversation with Price’s sister on March 3, during which he learned in his past Price had been in a plane crash, that he suffered a blood clot as a result and that he had had previous mental health concerns.

“Once you received the information did you do further investigation before going out? Did you investigate whether there was any crime related to Mr. Price?,” Defence asked, adding when the answer was “no” didn’t Cropley agree that would be standard and why not follow protocol?

“My attention was to get out there and find him if he was in distress,” Cropley replied.



Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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