Guilty plea entered in murder
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Twice convicted of murder in the death of her husband, but twice successfully appealing the verdicts, Darlene Alice Young will forgo a third trial.
Young pleaded guilty in Vancouver Wednesday to second-degree murder in connection with the death of her husband, Frederick (Skip) Payton, in the couple’s Falkland home in March 2002.
“She agreed to plead guilty to a charge of second-degree murder in connection with the death of Mr. Payton, and received a sentence of life in prison with no parole eligibility for 10 years,” said Neil MacKenzie, communications counsel for the criminal justice branch of B.C.
“The plea certainly followed discussions between Crown and defence in relation to it, yes.”
Young had been tried and convicted twice for the second-degree murder of her estranged husband, Payton, and the attempted murder of Payton’s friend, Donald Joseph Stewart, on March 29, 2002, at the couple’s ranch home near Falkland.
She was originally tried and convicted of the second-degree murder of Payton, and the attempted murder of Stewart, in 2003. Young appealed the decision, won and was granted a second trial.
At the second trial, held in 2005 in Kamloops before judge and jury, Young pleaded intoxication and self-defence, and relied on expert psychiatric opinion evidence that she suffered from battered woman syndrome.
Young, however, was again tried and convicted on both counts of second-degree and attempted murder.
She again contested the verdict in the B.C. Court of Appeal on the grounds that the trial judge in Kamloops erred in his instructions to the jury on Young’s claim of self-defence.
She abandoned her appeal for the conviction of attempted murder.
Appeal court justices agreed with Young’s application.
Young’s defence lawyer, Kevin McCullough, did not return Morning Star phone calls for comment.
MacKenzie said Payton’s family had been advised of the guilty plea.
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