Man convicted of murdering Edmonton woman in 1987 granted bail
Roy Allan Sobotiak, found guilty of killing Susan Kaminsky, awaiting new trial
A man imprisoned for more than three decades for murdering an Edmonton woman has been granted bail, months after his conviction was quashed by the federal justice minister.
After more than 35 years behind bars in the killing of 34-year-old Susan Kaminsky, Roy Allan Sobotiak was on Friday granted release from custody.
Kaminsky, an Edmonton mother of two, disappeared in 1987. To this day, her body has never been found.
Sobotiak was convicted of second-degree murder in 1991 and sentenced to life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for 16½ years.
During a hearing Friday in Edmonton's Court of King's Bench, Justice Eric Macklin granted Sobotiak bail. He will be released Friday afternoon.
Sobotiak is now 61 years old.
Submissions heard Friday paint contradictory pictures: one of a violent, sexually-deviant offender who may pose a risk to public safety, the other of a mild-mannered man who was wronged by the justice system.
The Crown argued he should be kept under house arrest.
Sobotiak's legal team with Innocence Canada, a non-profit organization that advocates against wrongful convictions, instead suggested a curfew.
With his previous murder conviction thrown out, Macklin said Sobotiak is considered legally innocent and must be granted release.
Sobotiak will be released into a sober living house in Fort McMurray and be subject to conditions including a curfew and electronic monitoring for a period of three months, to ensure he does not travel outside the bounds of the northern Alberta community.
Despite offences Sobotiak committed in prison, Macklin said he remains confident that he can be safely removed from custody.
Sobotiak has been institutionalized for decades and would "not have been able to escape prison" subculture, Macklin said
When considering his application for bail, the court must consider restraint, Macklin said.
"Placing Mr. Sobotiak under house arrest today is tantamount to substituting one prison, albeit a more relaxed one — with a different jailer."
He said Sobotiak has signed an affidavit, committing to the terms of his release.
"Detention is not necessary to protect the safety of the public," Macklin said. "As he states, he has worked 'too hard for too long to mess things up.'"
Macklin said his decision Friday had to satisfy his role as a gatekeeper in "peculiar circumstances."
Friday's proceedings began with questions surrounding the court's jurisdiction and how to assess Sobotiak's bail request, given the rare legal circumstances of his pending trial.
Sobotiak was granted a new trial in February by then federal Justice Minister Arif Virani who concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe that a "miscarriage of justice" had occurred in the case.
In response, Alberta Attorney General Mickey Amery applied for a judicial review contesting the decision, arguing that his federal counterpart had provided no reason — written or otherwise — to support his findings that a new trial is warranted.
Evidence kept under wraps
Lawyer James Lockyer, a founding director of Innocence Canada, spoke on behalf of Sobotiak. He said Virani asked his non-profit organization to intervene after a federal investigation uncovered unacceptable flaws with the previous case.
A briefing note by his legal team said the ministerial review hinged on three key issues: the undercover police operation, undisclosed investigative details and additional forensic evidence linked to the case — some of which was discovered after his conviction.
Undisclosed evidence from Edmonton police files was discovered during the federal investigation of the case, including evidence of other potential suspects in Kaminsky's disappearance, the briefing note said.
The "most striking" example of the apparent non-disclosure was a statement to police suggesting that Kaminsky was alive when she left the home of Sobotiak's mother on the night she vanished, the briefing says.
The extent of the evidence withheld from Sobotiak is unknown as files from both the original defence and prosecution teams have since been destroyed.
The federal investigation also found that a legal assessment must be done on the use of the undercover police operation — known as a Mr. Big operation — which was relied upon to extract Sobotiak's original confession.
A Mr. Big operation is a controversial technique during which police draw a suspect into a fictitious criminal organization through the use of undercover agents. A Supreme Court ruling in 2014 set new standards for when this evidence can be used, meaning these confessions are now often deemed inadmissible at trial.
Lockyer said once the federal investigation unearthed those issues, Virani took "extraordinary measures" to intervene in Sobotiak's case.
"Mr. Sobotiak doesn't just have a presumption of innocence. He has a very strong presumption of innocence," Lockyer said Friday.
"He is unique before this court."
Without a trace
Kaminsky disappeared in February 1987 after a night out with friends at a north Edmonton pub.
She never returned home and was reported missing. Her car was found the following day, abandoned on a south Edmonton street.
Police determined Sobotiak was the last person to see her alive.
Investigators suspected foul play but no charges were laid until 1989 when Sobotiak, then 26, was charged with first-degree murder.
Just days after she disappeared, Sobotiak told CBC News he had been interviewed by police.
Kaminsky once babysat when he was a child.
Sitting in his apartment, he described Kaminsky as a "nice, soft-spoken person" and recalled his first interactions with the officers investigating her death.
"They interviewed me for about three hours and then they took me on a three mile hike through the river valley here, tracing my steps from Saturday afternoon."
Kaminsky's disappearance triggered one of the most intensive police investigations Edmonton had seen.
The month-long search, involved police and hundreds of civilians, who scoured forest and ravines for any clues.
The search, however, failed to uncover any evidence of her remains, baffling investigators and leaving her family increasingly anxious for answers as the months passed.
Two years after Kaminsky vanished, Sobotiak was charged.
The principal evidence against him was taped statements he made to an undercover police officer in which he boasted that he had tortured, sexually assaulted, killed, and dismembered Kaminsky in his mother's basement before disposing of her body.
He also confessed to the murder during a police interrogation, but later changed his story.
Sobotiak, who has been serving his sentence at a federal penitentiary in Alberta, has since maintained his innocence.
He previously launched unsuccessful appeals to both the Alberta Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.
Contradictory pictures
Court heard Friday details of parole board documents that chronicled his decades in prison.
Crown prosecutor Joanne Dartana said Sobotiak has a history of violence and sexually-deviant behaviour.
She said previous reports show he demonstrates a "grandiose, narcissistic belief system," and that he continues to display criminal and "sexualized behaviour," including harassment, stalking and charges for pornography and drug possession.
Dartana said that a document found in his personal effects in 2007, which was sealed by blood, said that in exchange for surrendering his "tortured soul" he would select females to form a harem "in the afterlife."
He was found guilty for exposing himself to a female guard and was found in possession of a graphic "homemade book" of images of female children in suggestive poses, Dartana said.
"For all of these reasons, the Crown has concerns with regard to the safety of the public," she said, as she urged the judge to impose house arrest.
In response, Lockyer offered a different account of the man who sat in the prisoner's box, dressed in an orange jumpsuit.
He said Sobotiak is mild-mannered man with a striking lack of bitterness. Sobotiak has faced "extreme frustration" for being wrongfully trapped in a toxic prison subculture, Lockyer said.
"Sobotiak is Canada's longest serving prisoner who has been found to have been a victim of a miscarriage of justice."
He characterized the trial ahead as one that has already proved both rare and contentious, pitting the federal and provincial governments against each other within the courts.
"For the first time in Canadian history, a Crown's office has sought to challenge a minister's decision," Lockyer said.
"How can you think for a moment there's a strength to this case? All the signs point to, there is not."
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With files from Madeline Smith
