By Kathy Michaels,
Black Press
A Kelowna man who recently went to prison for charges relating to a heavily armed drive through the Shuswap has been set free, for the time being.
In a decision released this week, Cory Joseph Montemurro, 45, was granted judicial interim release pending the hearing of his appeal from conviction. Release was granted with a list of 22 conditions, $500,000 in sureties and a promise to enter the written component of his appeal by no later than August.
“Although I am less sanguine than Mr. Montemurro about the strength of some of his grounds of appeal, I am also less pessimistic than the Crown about the possibility of the appeal succeeding. Admittedly, the prospects of success with respect to some of the grounds are greater than with others….,” reads the decision by Supreme Court Justice David Frankel “While this case is close to the line, on balance, I am of the view the merits of the appeal are such that public confidence in the administration of justice would not be adversely affected by granting Mr. Montemurro bail provided he diligently prosecutes the appeal.”
Montemurro had been sentenced to five years in prison alongside Kelowna Hells Angel Joseph Skreptak a month earlier, but was given an all-but-instant reprieve due to the intent to appeal submitted Jan. 20.
His appeal can be distilled to six points:
•The trial judge erred in finding reasonable grounds to arrest the occupants of the Jeep and that the search of the Jeep was lawfully conducted incidental to those arrests.
•The trial judge suffered from an undisclosed illness during the proceedings which resulted in him making factual errors in his voir dire ruling and reasons for judgment;
•The trial judge erred in finding Mr. Montemurro in possession of all the weapons on the basis of a joint enterprise;
•The trial judge erred in finding a knife on Mr. Montemurro’s person to be a weapon;
•Mr. Montemurro was entitled to know why the trial judge was replaced for sentencing so that he could consider whether to apply for a mistrial; and
•The verdict was unreasonable and not supported by the evidence.
Montemurro was arrested Nov. 25, 2010, when a police officer pulled over the rented Jeep Grand Cherokee that Montemurro, Skreptak – and two others who had charges against them dropped – were driving on the outskirts of Salmon Arm on a snowy night.
The officer pulled the Jeep over because he was concerned it was being driven too fast for the road conditions. When he leaned through the front passenger side window to hand a ticket to Montemurro, the officer detected the odour of marijuana bud, so he made a decision to further investigate, the court heard during the September 2014 trial.
The problem, he decided, was that he’d pulled the car over in an isolated area and he was alone, so he opted to let the Jeep proceed until he could secure assistance.
The vehicle was later pulled over and a search yielded two knives from Mr. Montemurro, one on his belt, the other in his boot, a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun wrapped in duct tape, a loaded CZ Luger 9-mm pistol registered to Montemurro, a set of men’s boxer shorts capable of being used as a mask, an electronic device capable of jamming cellular telephones, a black duffle bag containing a knife, bear spray, a firearm licence in Montemurro’s name, 12-gauge shotgun shells, six loaded magazines for the CZ Luger pistol, and a bear banger.
There was also a blue duffel bag containing a black balaclava and body armour, a grey duffle bag containing a knife – behind which was a baseball bat and a three-foot-long piece of hickory wood, as well as two walkie-talkies tuned to the same frequency and a roll of duct tape.
When Skreptak was searched at the detachment, the police found a plastic bag containing a small amount of marijuana and a latex glove containing nine .38 calibre rounds of ammunition. The discovery of the .38 calibre ammunition caused the police to return to the two locations where the Jeep had been stopped.
Police found a loaded .38 calibre revolver in a holster and a loaded Glock 9-mm pistol inside a black sock. The serial number had been removed.
Both men faced 10 charges relating to the weapons and ammunition seized. Montemurro was charged alone with respect to the knife concealed on his person. Skreptak was charged alone with simple possession of marijuana.
They were found guilty last year and sentenced in January.