By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
A Yarmouth man convicted of first-degree murder following a 1992 shooting that occurred just a week before Christmas is hoping to convince the court to let him apply for early parole.
Clayton Otis Jacquard, now in his late 30s, is serving a life-sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
In Supreme Court in Yarmouth beginning on May 31, a judicial review of his parole ineligibility gets underway.
Two weeks have been scheduled for the proceeding, also known as a faint hope hearing. A jury will have to come to a unanimous decision as to whether Jacquard should be allowed to apply for early parole. The jury can also make a determination as to how much earlier he can apply for parole consideration.
Jacquard became eligible for the parole review after serving 15 years of his sentence. He is serving a life sentence in a prison in New Brunswick for killing his stepfather Alexander (Sandy) Hurlburt, 38, on Dec. 17, 1992. The 20-year-old shot Hurlburt in his Parade Street apartment. The police were called to the residence around 11 p.m. and found Hurlburt on the kitchen floor with a gunshot wound to his chest.
Jacquard had also shot 27-year-old Barbara Marie Wilkinson, who lived common law with Hurlburt. She survived the shooting.
Just over a half an hour after police arrived at the apartment, a call was placed to the RCMP and Jacquard gave himself up at a Cliff Street apartment. Two days later the Yarmouth County Ground Search and Rescue Team later recovered a shotgun under a skateboard ramp on Forest Street. Nearby a bag of shotgun shells was also located.
At Jacquard’s jury trial the defence argued that he was not criminally responsible for his actions because at the time of the shooting he was suffering from a mental illness caused by years of physical and mental abuse. Regardless, after four hours of jury deliberation on April 25, 1994 Jacquard was found guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Mark Heerema, one of the two Crown attorneys involved in the review hearing – Darrell Carmicheal being the other ¬– says the faint hope hearing is a rare occurrence in Nova Scotia, with just one other having taken place in the province several years ago.
“This hearing does not determine whether Mr. Jacquard is able to obtain parole, it’s whether he can walk in to the parole board and ask them if he can have parole. We’re only here to talk about parole ineligibility.” - Crown attorney Mark Heerema
“This hearing does not determine whether Mr. Jacquard is able to obtain parole, it’s whether he can walk in to the parole board and ask them if he can have parole,” says Heerema. “We’re only here to talk about parole ineligibility.”
Heerema says four primary factors will be considered during the parole review: the applicant’s conduct while serving the sentence, the nature of the offence, the character of the applicant and any information provided by the victim.
While this review is taking place before Justice Kevin Coady, in these types of reviews it is always a jury who makes the final determination.
“They have to unanimously agree that his period of parole ineligibility should be reduced. Then they have to agree by a two-thirds majority by how much time. They have some control as to when he can apply for parole,” Heerema explains.
Asked if the hearing will take the full two weeks that have been allotted, Heerema says he’s not sure as the onus is on the defence to be calling the evidence since it is the applicant’s case. Jacquard is being represented by Amherst Nova Scotia Legal Aid lawyer Robert Gregan.
If successful in his court application it will ultimately be up to the National Parole Board to determine if Jacquard is paroled, however at this stage the board has no involvement in the application. Rather, the early parole review is covered by a section of the Criminal Code.
“If the courts should change the date then they’ll advise us,” says Janice Babineau, a spokesperson for the parole board. “If the date changes then it will be changed in our system because they’re all automatically scheduled in our system. But if it remains status quo, we’re none the wiser. We don’t even get a report.”
The process gets underway Monday with jury selection. Summons have been mailed out to 400 potential jurors.
