Tuesday, May 26, 2009. Joey Oliver admits he's guilty, but says he's not a cold-blooded killer.
The 39-year-old St. John's man pleaded guilty Monday in Newfoundland Supreme Court to two counts of manslaughter in connection with the 1993 deaths of Dale Worthman and Kim Lockyer.
Oliver has confessed he lured the couple into the woods, but maintains another man pulled the trigger.
"It was fear," Oliver said when asked by Crown prosecutor Jim Walsh why he went along with a plan.
"I'm easily led. I didn't think of the seriousness of it."
Worthman, 30, and Lockyer, his 29-year-old girlfriend, disappeared from their Dogberry Hill Road home in St. Philip's in August 1993. Their bodies were found buried off Thorburn Road near Windsor Lake in July 2006.
It was determined they had been murdered execution style, with both shot several times in the back of the head.
According to the agreed statement of facts, Oliver told investigators that it was Shannon Murrin who killed Worthman and Lockyer.
Following Murrin's instructions, he said, he dropped Murrin off at a field off Thorburn Road and went to Worthman and Lockyer's house.
He told them Murrin had stolen items that Worthman would be interested in. Oliver said Lockyer wasn't supposed to come along, but she did.
Once they arrived at the field and got out of the car, Oliver said, Murrin immediately shot Worthman, then pointed the gun at Oliver and told him to leave and stay halfway out the path.
A half an hour later, Murrin emerged and told Oliver that he put "four in Kim's head."
Oliver said he went into shock when Worthman was shot and that he didn't know the couple would be killed. He said he thought Murrin would just give them "a few bangs" and "a scare."
"We cannot confirm Mr. Murrin was involved in this matter. We can, however, indicate that no other person has been charged in relationship to this matter."
When contacted by The Telegram, Const. Paul Davis of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary confirmed the case was "still open."
Murrin could not be reached for comment Monday, but has asserted he had nothing to do with the murders.
Murrin spent five years in custody in Kelowna, B.C., in the late 1990s before being acquitted in one of the country's highest-profile murder cases. In 2000, he was found not guilty by a jury of the 1994 rape and murder of eight-year-old Mindy Tran, whose family had lived near Murrin in the western Canadian city.
He is now suing the RCMP.
The hearing continues Wednesday, with lawyers expected to give their submissions on sentencing.
The maximum penalty for manslaughter involving a weapon is life in prison.
The mother of one of the two people shot to death in a wooded area outside St. John's in 1993 says she placed her trust in a man who turned out to have played a role in the killings.
Oliver faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, although he may receive a lesser sentence, as the Crown has acknowledged that the killings would likely have remained unsolved if Oliver had not stepped forward.
But in a written victim impact statement presented to the court on Monday, Beryl Worthman, the mother of Dale Worthman, said she holds no gratitude toward Oliver at all.
"The fear we went through over the years not knowing was at times unbearable," wrote Worthman, who attended the hearing on Monday in St. John's.
"Joey Oliver watched us suffer all those years. He would come to our home and even bought a car from my husband. I was devastated to find out that Joey Oliver was involved in the murders of Dale and Kim," she wrote.
Noting that she and her husband still hold on to some of their son's possessions — including a guitar, a mouth organ and a leather jacket — so they can continue to have his presence in their lives, Worthman wrote that her son and Lockyer informed them the night before their disappearance that the couple intended to marry. She added that Lockyer, 29, never had the opportunity to become a mother.
"I can only imagine what horror she went through that night, way down in the woods [where] no one could hear or help them,' she wrote. "You took our son from us and for this, we will never forgive you We knew and trusted the accused and felt very betrayed by him. If it was a stranger, it would not have hurt as much."
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Was Shannon Murrin a prime suspect 10 years ago in Worthman Lockyer Murdersby googlevideo2a795 views
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