NANAIMO, B.C. - A jury began deliberations today in the trial of a man accused of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of two former co-workers at a Vancouver Island mill.
Justice Robin Baird of the B.C. Supreme Court told jurors they must follow their own interpretation of the evidence presented over the past three weeks to decide if Kevin Addison is guilty.
Addison is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and attempted murder after a shooting at the Western Forest Products mill in Nanaimo on April 30, 2014.
His defence lawyer says there's little doubt Addison fired the shots that killed Fred McEachern and Michael Lunn, but that he should be found guilty of manslaughter instead, because his depression made him “unthinking and unfocused.”
The Crown says the 50-year-old man was motivated by revenge and planned the shooting after he was laid off at the mill in 2010.
Two other employees were shot but survived.
