Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, 20 June 1998
Canada's most famous juror, Gillian Guess, was grim-faced as she faced a crush of TV cameras and newspaper photographers while leaving the Vancouver Law Courts on Friday after being found guilty in a landmark obstruction of justice trial.
The jury deliberated for about 14 hours over two days before finding the 43-year-old single mother guilty of wilfully attempting to obstruct the course of justice by having an affair with accused killer Peter Gill, who was on bail during his 1995 murder trial.
A woman juror in the back row wiped a tear from her eye as the jury foreman announced its decision. The jurors then stood to confirm their verdict was unanimous.
A friend of Guess, Mary Sepers, lost her temper in court after the verdict was announced. She stood and shouted at the prosecutor: "Take that smirk off your face, [Joe] Bellows. You're going to get yours." She was removed from court by deputy sheriffs.
Guess sat with a blank stare on her face, looking crushed, her mouth downturned. But there were no tears.
Those came later, as she hugged her 13-year-old son, Adam, who seemed both sad and angry that the justice system might send his mother to jail for the crime, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Guess, who will remain on bail until she is sentenced August 20, proved to be defiant and unrepentant to the end.
"I have not committed a crime," she told reporters outside the courthouse. "I fell in love, nothing more. My whole life has been ruined. My whole life has been violated."
She added: "At no time did I obstruct justice or attempt to obstruct justice."
Asked if she had any remorse for what she did, she replied: "How can I show remorse for a crime I didn't commit?"
She did admit to feeling bad for causing great expense to taxpayers for the police investigation, which included an extensive wiretap operation--18,000 conversations were secretly tape-recorded--and the subsequent prosecution.
"If I could change things, I guess I would have, but you can't tell your heart how to feel," Guess said.
Defence lawyer Peter Ritchie plans to urge the court to impose a non-custodial sentence--no jail time--on his client. He will also consider an appeal in the next few weeks, he added.
Crown prosecutor Joe Bellows told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Raymond Paris he will seek a period of incarceration since Guess showed no remorse for her crime.
"The Crown regards this crime as serious because of a number of aggravating circumstances," the prosecutor said.
He also noted Guess will likely profit from her unlawful act--she has been flooded with offers from Hollywood and Canadian film producers for the screen rights to her story.
She has not yet signed any deals and Ritchie has received $50,000 in legal aid for the case, which he estimated would have cost a paying client $500,000 for the two years of work done by himself, his colleague Marilyn Sandford and a number of law students.
Bellows told reporters outside court he felt the jury's decision maintained the integrity of the justice system but noted it set no legal precedents because the circumstances were so unusual.
It was the first time in North America or the Commonwealth that a juror was charged with having an affair with an accused killer during a trial.
"The case is so unique on its fact that one hopes that it remains unique," Bellows said.
Testimony at Guess' trial related how she flirted with Gill early in the murder trial, which led to a secret sexual relationship during the six-month trial.
Guess and her fellow jurors decided to acquit Gill and five other men co-accused of the first-degree murder of Ron and Jimmy Dosanjh. The brothers were gunned down execution-style in 1994 during a cocaine turf war on Vancouver streets.
The Crown is appealing the acquittals of Gill and three other co-accused, including notorious Vancouver cocaine dealer Bindy Johal, who faces trial next year on an unrelated extortion and kidnapping case involving the brother of a Lotus gang member.
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