SAANICHNEWS Studio tour season
Going solo
A busy month of artist studio tours in the district kicks off in rural Saanich this weekend. Community, Page A3
This year’s Uno Festival includes experienced vets and groundbreaking local talent. Arts, Page A18
Friday, May 11, 2012
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U.S. man to learn fate for attempted murder Edward Hill
Members of the Saanich police street crimes unit and the RCMP’s clandestine lab team wear hazmat suits while looking inside a pickup truck parked on a property where the makings of a chemical drug lab were found.
News staff
Kyle Slavin/News staff
Police dismantle potential drug lab Jugs of chemicals found in shed at Gordon Head home of known offender Kyle Slavin News staff
A slew of unlabelled chemicals, believed to be the makings of a drug lab in-progress, were found inside a shed at a Gordon Head home on Monday. Saanich police were called to the house, in the 1900-block of Casa Marcia Cres., around 1:30 p.m. after receiving a complaint about a possible drug lab inside. Late Monday night police received a search warrant to gain access to the home. A number of liquid chemicals,
some stored in large five-gallon jugs, were found in a shed on the property. “It doesn’t look like it was at the processing stage. They may have been accumulating the chemicals with the intention of setting up a drug lab,” Sgt. Dean Jantzen said Tuesday at the home. While the Saanich police street crimes unit took control of the scene, the RCMP’s clandestine lab team came from the Lower Mainland to assist in processing and stabilizing the chemicals. Saanich fire department and B.C. Ambulance workers were on hand to ensure the health and safety of the officers handling chemicals. Officers wearing hazmat suits took samples of the chemicals within a makeshift workstation set up in the backyard of the home. It could take weeks or months to identify the samples, Jantzen said. “It’s too early to classify what type of lab this is,” he added.
Jantzen said the investigation has focused mainly on the shed, though officers are searching the home and vehicles parked there for any drugs, drug paraphernalia or additional chemicals. One man who lived in the home, which is owned by a family member, was arrested. Joel Toevs, 31, was charged with one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking. He was taken into custody Monday afternoon following a brief stand-off with police. He had barricaded himself inside the home. A second man arrested at the scene hasn’t been charged. Toevs has a long criminal history, including convictions for fraud, possession of stolen goods and breaking and entering in communities across the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. He was expected to appear in Victoria provincial court Wednesday afternoon. kslavin@saanichnews.com
An American engineer convicted of trying to murder a Saanich couple four years ago is expected to learn today if he will face more time behind bars, or be sent home a free man. David Ross Goldberg, 40, was found guilty last October of the attempted murder of Tatcha Aroonjaratsang and her husband Jeremy Walsh after a violent confrontation at their Cedar Hillarea home on Sept. 24, 2008. He was also convicted of making or possessing explosives. Crown and defence councils squared off in B.C. Supreme Court in Victoria at a sentencing hearing on Tuesday. Prosecutor Nils Jensen argued Goldberg coldly planned to kill his victims and should receive between 10 and 17 years in prison. Defence attorney Robert Mulligan said his client should get a month – enough time to be deported to the U.S., where he can restart his life. Jensen painted Goldberg as a man obsessed with his former fiancée, who stalked and harassed her over social media, devised ruses to find where she lived, and travelled from California to Victoria with the intent to kill her and Walsh. Goldberg confronted Aroonjaratsang and Walsh outside their Merriman Drive home late in the evening on Sept. 24, 2008. Jensen told the court Goldberg pointed the gun and laser sight at the couple’s foreheads while uttering threats. In an ensuing fight with Walsh, the gun fired into the air and Goldberg was stabbed six times. The prosecutor pointed out Goldberg bought a handgun and shotgun in the U.S. and purchased chemicals in Canada that could be melded into an explosive. “This was an attempt at first-degree murder. He practised with handguns, he bought a shotgun, he bought night-vision goggles,” said Jensen, who is also the mayor of Oak Bay. PLEASE SEE: No plan to kill, Page A6 E! RIC P NEW
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