By Spencer Sterritt

Jury deliberations begin in murder conspiracy trial

Jun 3, 2016 | 5:00 PM

The fate of two lovers charged with plotting to murder their spouses is now in the hands of a jury.

After two weeks of evidence and closing submissions, the murder conspiracy trial of Curtis Vey and Angela Nicholson has entered its final act.

The jury began deliberating shortly before 2 p.m. today, June 3 to decide if Vey and Nicholson are innocent or guilty.

Earlier in the day, Chief Justice Martel Popescul gave his charge to the jury at Prince Albert’s Court of Queen’s Bench and explained the numerous complexities of the conspiracy to commit murder charge.

Popescul said conspiracy is a crime of intent between two people, and the alleged plan does not have to come to pass to prove the charge.

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In this case, a conviction could result if the jury believes the two agreed to and intended to act upon a plan to burn Vey’s wife in a house fire and leave Nicholson’s estranged husband drugged in an abandoned building to freeze to death, as the Crown argued.

If the jury believes the defense counsel which argued Vey and Nicholson were merely frustrated lovers venting by talking about killing their spouses, then an acquittal is likely.

Even though they face the same charge for the same alleged plan, it’s possible one could be convicted with the other acquitted.

The jury will have to grapple with whether the plan described in a secret audio recording of Vey and Nicholson was concrete enough to prove intent, and if the tone of the conversation indicated they had agreed on the plan.

During audio taken from conversations with undercover RCMP officers in their cells, both Vey and Nicholson admitted to talking about a plan, but said they would have never gone through with it.

As of 5 p.m. the jury has not returned to give their verdict.

ssterritt@panow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit