Saskatchewan lovers convicted of plot to murder spouses

Curtis Vey arrives at court in Prince Albert, Sask., on May 25, 2016. The trial of lovers Vey and Angela Nicholson, accused of plotting to murder their spouses. ended Sunday with a conviction on two counts each of conspiracy to commit murder. (THE CANADIAN PRESS, file)

It took a jury 36 hours to convict two lovers of plotting to kill their spouses.

Curtis Vey, 52, and Angela Nicholson, 51, were each found guilty Sunday of two counts of conspiring to commit murder.

The court gallery reacted with a stunned gasp. Nicholson openly wept as she hugged her family. Vey sat in the back of the courtroom quietly speaking with his lawyer.

Neither of the intended victims, Brigitte Vey and Jim Taylor, was present for the verdict.

“I think the jury had a really hard time here,” said Crown Lori O’Connor. “They spent a long time considering what the evidence was, and I think ultimately they came to the right decision.”

The court heard secret audio recordings in which Nicholson and Vey discussed a plan to kill Vey’s wife in a house fire and killing Nicholson’s husband by drugging him and then making him disappear. The court heard that Brigitte Vey hid an iPod under the kitchen table at a farmhouse shared with Curtis Vey and secretly recorded her husband and Nicholson hatching the plan on July 1, 2013.

The Crown contended this wasn’t just the fantasies of lovers, but a detailed plot.

Defence lawyers said the conversation was offensive and stupid, but not criminal because there was no intent to follow through.

The judge told the jury it had to decide whether what they heard was harmless ranting or an agreement the two accused intended to carry out. Conspiracy to commit murder is a rare charge in Canada.

The case attracted widespread attention because Curtis and Brigitte Vey are the parents of Vancouver Canuck Linden Vey.

Vey’s lawyer Aaron Fox said he’s “extremely disappointed in the verdict” and that he was “surprised that after deliberations that took that long that we would get this result.”

Ron Piche, lawyer for Nicholson, echoed that disappointment.

“She was convinced in her mind that this would be the beginning of the end for her in terms of this horrible nightmare she’s been suffering.”

The court also heard a conversation Nicholson had with an undercover police officer in a jail cell after she was arrested July 6, 2013. Nicholson said she researched how to set a grease fire, but was too "chicken" to do it.

Nicholson told her cellmate that her marriage to Taylor crumbled because of his alleged alcoholism, addiction to cocaine and a gambling habit that lost the couple $100,000. She said Taylor was emotionally abusive and prevented her from finishing their divorce proceedings, which started in 2009.

Nicholson admitted she and Vey, who was separated from his wife, talked about doing something to their spouses, but added they would never act on it.

"You know what, when the time came closer, that's probably all it would have been, just talk. You say things out of anger, but nothing that you intend to do," Nicholson said.

Nicholson and Vey will continue to be released with conditions until they are sentenced Sept. 2.

The defence says it will consider whether to appeal.

With a report from Jules Knox, CTV News and files from The Canadian Press