Canadian True Crime - 27 Angela Nicholson & Curtis Vey

Episode Date: June 15, 2018

Melfort, Saskatchewan. Two farming families found themselves linked together under the most shocking of circumstances.Support my sponsors! Here's where the discount codes are:www.canadiantruecrime.ca/sponsorsPodcast recommendation:Swindled For information sources, credits and more, please visit www.canadiantruecrime.ca.Support the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My name's John Weir. You don't know me, but you're gonna, because I know the people that have been watching you, learning about you. They know you've done well for yourself, that people like you and trust you. Trust you. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all that information that you've freely shared with the whole world. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all the information you have at it. Yeah, I'll be in touch. Radical starring Kiefer Sutherland, new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. Marriage is a funny thing.

We go into it with a blind and often naive promise that we will love and cherish the other person until death us do part. But along the way, things change. We have children, pets, careers. We go in different directions. Our goals change. We change. Sometimes we can't ever get back what we once had, no matter how hard we want to or how hard we try. Some couples are able to get out of it largely unscathed.

But sometimes a marriage explodes in unfathomable and catastrophic consequences. This story takes place in Saskatchewan in an area one to two hours drive northeast of Saskatoon. Saskatchewan is one of the prairie provinces and as such is known for growing a large portion of the grain grown in Canada. And in 2013, two farming families would come together under shocking circumstances. This is Christy and you're listening to Canadian True Crime, Episode 27, Curtis Vey and Angela Nicholson. One of these two families was helmed by Curtis and Bridget Vey, both in their mid to late 40s who lived in the town of Walker, which has less than a thousand residents. In 2013, they'd been married for nearly 30 years and had three adult children who were in their 20s.

They were a farming family. But Father Curtis was also a financial consultant with knowledge of the specific business and finance needs of a farm operation. Bridget and Curtis had an ordinary marriage filled with the usual ups and downs, but generally described as fine. They'd been planning to retire together until 2012. Bridget caught Curtis texting someone while he was in the bathtub. She thought he was acting a little suspicious, so she said she wanted to see the phone. Curtis dropped the phone in the bathtub, accidentally on purpose. He told Bridget that he was just chatting to a woman who was just an old friend and sometimes they would just catch up via email and text message.

He said it wasn't anything sexual, but Bridget didn't buy it and asked him to end whatever the relationship was. That incident seemed to signify the start of the marriage becoming marred with confusion and mistrust. Bridget had an ongoing suspicion that Curtis was cheating on her, although she didn't know with whom. She didn't trust anything he said. She suspected that he told a lot of lies. She was paranoid now and would often record conversations that he had in a desperate effort to find out more information about what he might be up to. She often felt bad about this intrusion of privacy and would confess to him afterwards that she'd recorded his conversation. The other family in this story was Jim Taylor and Angela Nicholson, who had been married for over 25 years and had two adult daughters. They were also in their mid to late 40s and had a farm outside the town of Malfoot, but their marriage had been a rocky relationship for a while.

In fact, they'd been officially separated for four years, with Angela saying a large part of the reason was because of Jim's addiction issues, specifically with alcohol, cocaine and gambling. In fact, she said that Jim had lost over $100,000 of the farm's income because of these issues. After Angela and Jim separated, he continued to live on the farm and she moved to her own place in the town of Malfoot about an hour away from Walker, where Curtis and Bridget Vey lived. By now, Angela and Jim were well over their head with farm debt, so around the time that they separated, they engaged farm financial expert Curtis Vey from the other family to consult about what they should do. They'd known him for over 15 years and so they trusted him to advise on how to best restructure the farm and what life insurance products they should purchase. According to Angela, after the separation, Jim started becoming emotionally abusive and roadblocked her from finalizing their divorce proceedings. She also said that he started stalking her, calling her up to 50 times a day and showing up at her work unannounced. One time, he sent her a set of knives that had their names engraved on them alongside an empty perfume box that read, Dear Me.

She thought he was referring to a murder-suicide plot and was terrified. She often kept the blinds shut at her house. As things started to take a downward turn with Jim, this is where the story of these two families would merge together. Angela Nicholson and the farm financial advisor Curtis Vey began getting friendlier and eventually their friendship grew into an affair. Angela said that she was tired of being scared with the situation with her estranged husband Jim and needed some peace of mind in her life. Curtis seemed to provide her with that. During their affair, Angela and Curtis went on a secret trip together to Phoenix and Las Vegas. Their spouses were none the wiser. The affair between Curtis and Angela heated up and became more intense and so did their animosity towards their spouses.

Curtis and Bridget still lived together as a married couple, although Bridget's rightful paranoia that he was having an affair was the elephant in that room. Angela and Jim were still living separately, estranged for all intents and purposes, and still struggling under the weight of farm debt. Each couple's adult children were feeling the tension in their family's building. One day, Angela received a text message from Curtis' phone, except it didn't seem to be Curtis. The message told Angela to stay away from Curtis or there would be consequences. And soon after that, she received a letter written by Curtis in the post, telling her that he'd been physically assaulted by what he was led to believe were Hell's Angels. He said the beating had left him with a broken jaw, ribs and nose. In the letter, Curtis went on to say the men held a gun to his head, told him to stay away from Angela and not to go to police.

Curtis told Angela that during the attack he was told it was a message from their spouses, Jim and Bridget, an effort to keep them apart. She wrote back to Curtis, saying, I hate Jim and Bridget so much, I want them to suffer. After a pause, Angela and Curtis resumed their relationship again. But he now told her that he'd come to the conclusion that if they wanted to be together, they needed to get their spouses out of the picture. He told her she needed to be a realist and see what was happening. Quote, they'll never let us be. After a while, these conversations morphed into discussions about getting rid of their spouses, permanently. Angela and her husband Jim were separated, but due to their estrangement, the divorce proceedings were not coming along and they still had that issue of the farm debt to sort out.

Angela and Curtis talked about the possibility of dragging Jim with sleeping pills, so many that it would look like he'd overdosed. And while he was out cold, they would possibly drag his body into an abandoned building and light it on fire. Or maybe they would throw off the police by staging a break in at his house on the farm. They talked about maybe drafting a letter and making it look like it had been written and signed by Jim. In the letter, Jim would supposedly say he wanted to leave all his property to Angela and their two daughters. Curtis and Angela said they would send it to Jim's lawyer as though it was Jim who sent it. As for Curtis' wife Bridget, he devised a possible plan to drug her with sleeping pills and after she'd gone to sleep, stage an accidental house fire to mask her death. Over time, they had a couple more discussions about these plans where they would flesh out details and talk about what might happen afterwards.

On July 1, 2013, Bridget Vey went to work, leaving her husband Curtis at the house. And during the day, Angela Nicholson came over to the house to meet with him. As they sat at a kitchen table, they talked about many different things, their families and where Angela's divorce was at. They discussed the weather, farming, friends and birthday cakes. They talked about whether it's good etiquette to kiss or hug people they meet on the street. And then, conversation turned to their spouses, Jim and Bridget. Curtis wondered if anyone would notice if Angela's husband Jim were to disappear. They talked about solidifying the plans they had previously discussed.

Starting with the date they're going to do it, how they might get access to the house to stage the break-in, and what might happen after it was noticed that Jim was missing. I think they're pretty suspicious of me. Do you know of me? Yeah, I love you. I think they're pretty suspicious of me. Why all of a sudden, were you going to miss him? Okay. Who's going to contact first? My guest is me.

Okay. And I was guessing if there are some people in there. That would be my guess. But he could be a number of days before all my suspiciousities go up. Do you know of him? I couldn't make a look unless they're thinking if I go in there. If I turn over to the coffee table. And I hope the coverage that goes upstairs and my cold recipe results.

They could look like they're rummaging through or something. As they make them suspicious of me. Just like that? Yes. Sorry, that is one and a half minutes of your life that you'll never get back. But don't go back to listen again. The audio is scratchy and terrible. And there's not much that could be done to fix it up.

But to Bridget Vey, who had left an iPhone recording on the kitchen table before she left for work. The content seemed clear. When she got home, she listened to the first part of the conversation and heard Curtis in their kitchen talking to a woman. Finally, she had the smoking gun. She had the proof that he'd been lying. He'd proven her suspicions correct and he was in fact having an affair. Without listening to much more of the conversation, Bridget turned off the recording and confronted Curtis. He denied having an affair.

They argued and then she went for a walk, taking her iPhone with her and listened to the rest of the recording. What she heard next shocked her to the core. She was expecting to catch Curtis out in a lie, confirm her suspicions that he was cheating on her. What she did not expect was that he would be plotting with his lover to murder their respective spouses. Over the course of the two hour conversation, Bridget heard that the couple were planning this for Halloween night, October 31, 2013. Curtis Vey said it would be a number of days before anybody was suspicious that Jim is gone. He asked if there is really going to be anybody who is worried about him. Bridget listened as Angela Nicholson talked about ransacking her house, turning over a coffee table, opening cupboards, pulling dresser drawers out.

She wondered whether it's going to make the RCMP suspicious. Curtis' reply was to whisper, quote, just make sure you got gloves on. They also talked about how to drug Jim's coffee. Bridget heard Curtis bringing up the plot that involved drugging her and staging the house fire. He and Angela talked about whether or not it would be better to start the fire at night or during the day. Angela suggested she could start the fire from the curtains, adding that the RCMP might not be able to tell how it started. Quote, it starts there and these get going, see I could get those ones going to help it along. Curtis indicated he knew what she meant and added, quote, just remember to shut these blinds.

Angela agreed that the lights would have to be off too. Quote, because then they won't see the lights from the highway or the flames until hopefully it's too late. Curtis replied, oh, it'll go up fast, it will, it's old. Angela asked him if he promised and he said he was assuming because old houses usually do. Angela then mentioned spilling some oil on the stove and leaving the bottle out to also aid in helping the fire along. Curtis, quote, the bottom line is that's how you know it's set up to be an accident, right? Do you know what I mean? Like the house burns down. He mentioned setting up an alibi during the fire, perhaps him being at a farming show with an acquaintance.

At one point, Angela asked Curtis how his wife's death might affect his relationship with his three adult children. He replied that it didn't really matter because the whole thing would be set up to be an accident. Later on, he said, you got to be able to do it, you have to be real. Bridget was listening as they discussed getting together after their spouses were dead. They talked about how long afterwards they should wait to go public with their relationship. Much of the conversation was unintelligible and references past conversations, making it difficult to piece together. And they never actually named Bridget specifically in the conversation, they only used vague references. However, it was clear to Bridget that it was the continuation of a previous conversation they'd had and it was serious.

She was frightened for her safety now. So she left the family house and went to stay with her daughter near Saskatoon for the night. At least one of her sons came over too and she played the audio for them. They decided she needed to go to the police straight away. My name is John Weir, you don't know me but you're gonna. Because I know the people that have been watching you, learning about you. They know you've done well for yourself, that people like you and trust you. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all that information that you freely shared with the whole world.

Now imagine what they're gonna do with all the information you have at it. Yeah, I'll be in touch. Radical starring Kiefer Sutherland, new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. I needed some kind of online hub to manage all the non-podcasting tasks that come with podcasting. I chose Squarespace because it's an all-in-one platform that seamlessly helps me achieve multiple goals. It's important to have a website that looks good and I was inspired by Squarespace's wide selection of clean and modern templates. They can be easily customized with pre-built layouts and flexible design tools to fit your needs. And you can even browse the category of your business to see examples of what others have done.

I use the built-in blogging tools to create a new page for each episode. And there are so many intuitive options from embedding an audio player so listeners can stream episodes to scheduling posts to be published on a certain date, an easily moderated comment section and automatically displaying recent episodes on the homepage. Every Squarespace website and online store includes SEO tools to help you maximize your visibility in search engines. And I love the powerful insights I can get from the analytics tools, helping me better understand who's visiting the site, where they came from and how they're interacting with it. Do you have a passion project or business idea or something to sell?

Go to squarespace.com.ctc for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code CTC to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com.ctc with offer code CTC and get your passion project off the ground today. Bridget went to the police with the recording and days later, Angela Nicholson and Curtis Faye were separately arrested. Before the police interviewed Curtis, they put him in a cell with an undercover officer. It didn't take Curtis long to talk. About half an hour after he met his temporary cellmate, Curtis started to tell him about his marriage troubles and how Bridget would often record his conversations with an iPod device.

He told the undercover cop that Angela had stopped by unannounced that day to ask for an old financial statement and how he suddenly had an idea. He told Angela that he knew Bridget was recording him and was sick and tired of her suspicions and paranoia. He told his cellmate that he wanted to teach his wife and kids a lesson, so he asked Angela to make it look like they were having an affair to play up for the recording. Quote, you know what, we're going to give them something to talk about. He said that later on, Angela talked about her husband going missing and also mentioned that a reason for his going missing could be his drug connections. He never mentioned his wife Bridget by name, he said, but Angela did say her husband Jim's name on the recording. Curtis told his cellmate that they were trying to make it look real to scare Bridget.

Quote, and it ended up fucking backfiring on me big time. I can't even kill a deer, never mind killing anybody else, I'm just not that way. He said that when Bridget went for her walk after listening to the first part of the recording, believing she'd found proof of the affair, Curtis called Angela to tell her that they needed to come clean. He conceded that perhaps what they did was the wrong thing, saying that sometimes people do things without thinking of the consequences. Lots of it was idle chit chat, he said. Curtis went on to say that the iPod recording wasn't enough for the police to go on. It was just two people against whatever was on the recording.

He said police would need more hard evidence than that. At the same time, police were interviewing Angela. She told them that she'd met Curtis 19 years ago and how he'd helped her in Jim with restructuring their farm. He'd also sold them life insurance. When she was first asked whether they'd been having a romantic relationship, she wouldn't confirm nor deny it. However, later on in the interview, she admitted that they'd been involved for three years and told the police how they'd travelled together to Phoenix and Las Vegas. She then said the whole thing was Curtis' vase idea, it was his suggestion for her to light his house on fire by leaving oil on the stove

and his idea to put sleeping pills in Bridget's coffee. She said she went along with the conversation because she loved him and it was his idea to give sleeping pills to her husband Jim and he was the one that suggested dragging his body into an abandoned building and lighting it on fire. Tears were streaming down her face as she spoke. She said she'd googled grease fires because sometimes they happen at her workplace and admitted that she felt overwhelmed with her toxic situation with being separated from Jim but said things were getting better.

Quote, do I ever deny saying that I wish he was dead? Absolutely not. Could I do it? No, I couldn't. Angela told them that she and Curtis had talked about forging a letter from Jim saying he willed his property to her and her daughters before posting it to his lawyer after he went missing. She brought up the whole incident with the Hell's Angels assaulting Curtis how he told her about it via a letter and she hadn't actually seen the injuries he said he'd received. The police officer interviewing her asked if maybe she thought that Curtis made the story up, fabricated it. She said no, she believed what he said.

By the time police had interviewed Angela, they'd searched her house and found the letter where she wrote that she wanted Jim and Bridget to suffer. They asked her about it. She said she was upset but she didn't want them to die. She went on to say she'd been swept up in the plan that Curtis had put together and that she believed he might be trying to manipulate her into continuing their affair without actually having to leave his wife. Quote, would I physically do it? No, I don't think I could. Sometimes you say things in the heat of the moment but did I plan it? No.

Angela was also placed in a cell with an undercover officer posing as a cellmate. After her first police interview, she told her cellmate that she'd been charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Angela talked about her relationship with her husband Jim, going into details about his substance and gambling addictions and how he was behaving towards her after they separated, the stalking. She admitted that she and Curtis had talked about doing something to their spouses but there was a difference between talking and actually doing. Quote, 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. I can't even kill a freaking mouse. The police went to question Curtis Vey, armed with Angela Nicholson's story and the information taken from the conversation Curtis had with his cellmate, the undercover police officer. When asked about the nature of his relationship with Angela, Curtis said they just had a business relationship. The police asked him if he'd ever travelled anywhere with Angela. He said that he hadn't.

He'd only seen her a couple of times in the last six months or so and added that the day she randomly stopped at his house was the first time she'd been there for a year and a half. He told the police that she stopped by specifically to get some financial advice and to talk about her divorce. He told them that she only stayed for about an hour. Curtis was presented with some key audio clips from the recording that had been made on Bridget's iPhone, specifically where he said, the key is you've got to be able to do it. And where he talked about the planning having to be ironclad.

Curtis said it was just talking and denied that there was any actual agreement in place. He told the police that he loved his wife Bridget and hadn't even thought of killing her, let alone talking about it. He told the police that he knew she was recording his conversation that day because he found a newer style black iPod that looked like a phone in their dining room. Curtis went on to say that she'd recorded him numerous times in the past and they both knew it. She'd even confessed once saying she felt bad. On the day of the conversation he had with Angela, Curtis said even though he knew Bridget was recording it, he didn't turn the iPod off.

Quote, what's the big deal? I had nothing to hide. The police officer said, so you're living under that kind of microscope that must get exhausting. Curtis replied, you got to remember I felt that I needed to pay some dues. Likely referring to when trust was broken that time, he accidentally dropped his phone in the bathtub. Quote, you may think I'm full of bullshit, but I felt a lot closer to her now in the last couple of months than I felt for years. The police asked Curtis about Angela's husband, Jim Taylor. Curtis said he was a strange man who was involved with drugs and ran with a shady crowd. He went on to say that's why they were talking about drafting a will for Jim and sending it to a lawyer

because his hypothetical death would have benefited Angela and her daughters and she could finally have some peace from the troubled man who had been stalking her. The police asked Curtis if there was any other reason than that that he and Angela had discussed why Jim needed to end up dead. This question was likely designed to give Curtis the opportunity to admit to the affair. He replied, no, I think that was a good enough reason. When asked if Curtis thought Jim suspected maybe he was having an affair with Angela, Curtis said he didn't know, maybe he did. But he still did not tell the police that he and Angela had been involved romantically. After the interview, Curtis returned to his cell where his undercover cop cellmate was again waiting for him.

He said that in his interview he told the officer part of the story, but not the crucial part. He said police said they would search his house and added, I've got nothing to hide. He did, however, say he'd found out that in Angela's interview she had caved and said some things that were damaging to him. He complained that she'd made it seem like what they were discussing was an ironclad plan rather than just a hypothetical discussion. She made it sound like they'd talked about it before, even though they never had. He told his cellmate that the police suggested he'd been trying to negotiate his way out of the situation, but insisted he was only lying to himself and his family, not during his interview. He said police could try and blame him for conspiracy to murder all they wanted, but he knows he would never kill anything.

It was just a talk, just a show because he knew his wife was recording him. Curtis then admitted there was no doubt he was going to do some time and worried he could spend the rest of his life in jail. He talked with his cellmate about a plea bargain and getting a lesser sentence, saying if house arrest were an option presented to him, he would take it right now. Since his cellmate had presented himself as a hardened criminal, Curtis asked if he knew what the options might be if the courts decided he had to serve time. The undercover officer told him it could be around two years. Curtis replied, two years of my life's not bad. He then went on to wonder out loud what would happen to his farm once he was in jail. Would he have to sell it off or could someone take it over and if so, who?

The next day, Curtis was interviewed by a different officer who presented him with some other pieces of evidence that they'd gathered against him, including proof of the trip he'd taken with Angela to Phoenix and Las Vegas, courtesy of the Canadian Border Services Agency. Curtis admitted that he'd been having an affair with Angela for at least three years and when he was asked why he failed to mention it the day before, he said he was probably in denial. He also said that he'd been having marriage problems and was unhappy, a statement that was completely opposite to what he said the day before, when he said he felt closer to his wife Bridget than he had in a long time. Again in contrast to his earlier statement that the recording was the first time he and Angela had discussed the murder of their spouses, Curtis then admitted to the officer that they'd actually discussed it twice, specifically, drugging their spouses and lighting his house on fire once his wife was asleep.

But he said he had no intention of actually doing these things. The police officer explained that because of these blatant lies and denials, there was now a credibility issue. Curtis' credibility was now zero and left them with no doubt that he had conspired with Angela to murder their spouses. Curtis replied, quote, He said he talked about dividing assets with Bridget because he thought it was likely that their relationship would end. He also said they discussed putting together a will but denied it was because he was greedy and wanted all the assets to himself. He added there was no guarantee he would lose half the assets even if his wife discovered his affair. When Curtis was asked why he would even just discuss killing his wife,

he replied that it was because of a mixed up feeling that had to do with their intense issues, but it was only a discussion, a discussion that should never have happened, he admitted. The police then brought up the story about Curtis telling Angela had been assaulted by the Hell's Angels, who wanted he and Angela kept apart. Curtis was accused of making up the story to justify his plan. He denied it. At the end of the interview, Curtis said that if he could tell his wife Bridget anything, it would be that he loves her, quote,

It was wrong to even think those thoughts. Curtis Vey and Angela Nicholson were each charged with two counts of conspiracy to murder Bridget Vey and Jim Taylor. Later in July 2013, the RCMP announced to the public the additional details of the case, quote, This case was now big news because one of the sons of Curtis and Bridget Vey were somewhat of a public figure, and Jim Taylor would also speak out and give his side. Not long after the charges were announced, Angela Nicholson's estranged husband Jim Taylor spoke at length to a Canadian newswire service.

He said that he suspected something was going on, but he didn't think it would be quite like this. When the RCMP first presented him with the evidence that Angela had been conspiring to murder him, he said he didn't quite believe it, and when they elaborated and told him that the man she was having an affair with, the man who was also their financial advisor, was in on the scheme, he was even more shocked. They had to tell me about three times, he said. We're a good Christian community, so it's really shocking to hear all this stuff. He said the RCMP first contacted him after Bridget had gone to them with the recording,

and they tapped Curtis and Angela's phones and went through their emails. Quote, I just can't believe that she's been having an affair with a married man, because they've ruined another family now too. He said he suspected the affair had been going on as far back as 2000, so 13 years in total. He described Angela as always very angry and evil. She was very controlling, she wanted to control me. He went on to say, it's going to be very hard to forgive,

but I just hope my girls can forgive her, it's just a little unreal right now. He said that while he was devastated and worried for his daughters, age 25 and 19, the community was being supportive. Quote, I just hope justice is done, the truth will set you free. The youngest son of Curtis and Bridget Vey was a professional ice hockey player in the National Hockey League and a member of the Vancouver Canucks. Although he wasn't one of the well-known key players, the team is kind of a big deal here in Canada.

He was 21 years old when his father was first charged with conspiracy to murder his mother. Over the next three years before the case went to trial, he stayed quiet. However, he chose to speak out publicly a few weeks beforehand, which shot the trial from local news to national news. He spoke about how the ordeal had affected he and his siblings. Quote, Your life is a certain way for so many years and all of a sudden you wake up one day and it's totally different. He said that he wasn't talking to his father a whole lot, although he still did here and there.

He said that his mother and siblings were super close and this is a time where we need to stick together as much as possible. He added that although he was speaking out, it wasn't about him. Quote, I will be there to support my mother. He said that the family was going to do its best to find their way through it. The trial started on May 25, 2016 in the court of Queens bench in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Both Angela Nicholson and Curtis Vey pleaded not guilty to the counts of conspiracy to commit murder. There were four charges in total that Angela Nicholson had conspired to murder Jim Taylor and Bridget Vey.

That was two charges. And the other two charges were of course that Curtis Vey had conspired to murder Jim Taylor and Bridget Vey. At the beginning of the trial, Chief Justice Martell Per Pascual told the jury all about the charge of conspiracy to commit murder and what it meant. There are three elements of the charge. That there was a completed agreement between Curtis and Angela. That the agreement was to commit murder and they had the intention to put the agreement into effect. The charge is rare in Canada. So rare that the defence lawyers for Curtis and Angela have only dealt with the charge once or twice,

despite having a combined experience total of over 60 years between them. It's actually much more complicated to prove conspiracy than it is to prove an actual assault or other criminal act. No matter what was captured on the audio recordings of Angela and Curtis talking with each other or with their undercover cellmates, the Crown must be able to prove that there was clear understanding, agreement and intent by each person charged. Crown Prosecutor Laurie O'Connor opened by stating that Curtis Vey and Angela Nicholson planned to kill Curtis' wife Bridget in a house fire and also Angela's husband Jim Taylor by dragging him and then making him disappear. She said the Crown would prove that their actions and conversation meant both of them met the threshold for conspiracy to commit murder. She said the Crown's theory was that the motives were greed and peace of mind,

meaning Angela and Curtis wanted their spouses out of the picture but didn't want to divide their respective estates with their spouses in the event of divorce. The defence lawyers for Curtis and Angela told the court their clients weren't serious about killing their spouses and didn't have any intention of actually doing so. The Crown's first witness was an RCMP corporal who testified that he arranged the initial searches of Curtis Vey's farmhouse and Angela Nicholson's house. He was with the major crime unit at the time and had been tasked with looking for laptops, computers and cell phones to search and see whether they could find evidence to discern whether the plan was real or not. He spoke about the letter that the police found in Angela's home, where she said she hated Bridget and Jim and wanted them to suffer. Upon cross-examination, he admitted that after finishing the search, he and the investigators found nothing that proved whether the discussions were hypothetical or a real plan with intent.

He was also asked to clarify that he didn't actively remove or ignore evidence that may have provided a defence that the couple were just having a hypothetical conversation or fantasising. He replied that he was just looking for any evidence, regardless of which way it went. He also said that the police searched for evidence of the will that Angela and Curtis were supposed to have forged on behalf of Angela's husband Jim, but they never actually found any evidence of it. Bridget Vey testified she thought things were fine in their 28-year marriage until the last few months. She told the jury the story of what happened, why she decided to record the conversation and what happened afterwards when she went for the walk and listened to the entire recording.

She told the court that she now planned to divorce Curtis but she feared for her financial well-being because he'd been withholding income tax information from her. During cross-examination, Bridget said her husband did know that she had a history of recording his conversations but would have expected her to record him with an older device. He didn't know that she was recording with a new device. She believed he didn't know he was being recorded. She confirmed to Curtis Faye's lawyer that she had never physically feared for her life while married to Curtis and that Curtis had never hurt her.

Also in the trial, the jury heard the conversation she recorded of Curtis and Angela at the dining room table. As you heard, it was scratchy and largely hard to understand so the jury had to follow along with thick transcript binders. The defence tried to establish that because various parts of the conversation were unintelligible, no one could say conclusively that it represented a solid plan to murder Bridget and Jim. The jury also heard recordings of Curtis and Angela's conversations with their cellmates, the undercover police officers. The officer who shared the cell with Curtis testified but admitted in cross-examination that some of that audio was difficult to understand or unintelligible too,

making the things that Curtis said difficult to understand as a whole. Neither Curtis nor Angela took the stand. In closing arguments, Angela's lawyer Ron Peesh said that talk of the deaths of their spouses was offensive and stupid but it didn't mean there was a criminal conspiracy between Angela and Curtis to actually plan to kill them. The motives that the Crown put forward didn't make sense. He said, quote, there's a lot of talk but there's no evidence, there's no action. Curtis' vays lawyer Aaron Fox said there was no agreement or intention in the case, quote, his harm was with the words he spoke.

He said that Curtis had recently cancelled his wife's life insurance policy and that it was Bridget Vays' idea to get his will dealt with, adding that these facts were not consistent with someone who was scheming to murder his wife. Both he and Angela's lawyers reiterated that throughout their police interviews and conversations with their undercover cellmates, the pair were consistent in saying they had no intention of killing anyone. Crown prosecutor Laurie O'Connor argued that it was a well thought out, detailed plan that had been discussed on multiple occasions. In her closing argument, she reminded the jury that although Curtis and Angela didn't explicitly state that they would kill Bridget or Jim, the inference is that the actions they discussed would lead to their deaths.

She pointed out that they were heard ironing out details of who would do what and even discussing possible alibis. The Crown mentioned the two possible motives again, greed and peace of mind. And with their spouses gone, they didn't need to worry about sneaking around anymore or going through messy divorces, quote, the two of them could be together. The jury retired to deliberate. During deliberations, they asked how details related to an agreement. The judge told them that even if someone discusses something in great detail, but there is no agreement, it would still only be considered a discussion. In other words, going into detail doesn't equal an agreement and an agreement is needed to prove conspiracy.

The judge used an example of a couple discussing going out for dinner, what restaurant they would go to and what they would order when they got there. Just because they had discussed this in detail didn't mean there was an agreement to actually go to the restaurant. The jury also asked two more complex questions about the difference between an agreement and intention to agree and also how they would go about making an inference that there was an intention to set an agreement into motion. The jurors would need to discuss what Angela and Curtis did and said and then infer whether or not there was agreement and intention. This wouldn't be an easy task. After three days, the jury were back with a verdict. Curtis Faye and Angela Nicholson guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.

Both were convicted of all the charges, one for their own spouse and a separate count for the other's spouse. As the verdict was read out, gasps could be heard from Angela's family as she hugged her daughters. Curtis looked shocked and shaken. At the sentencing hearing, the spouses Bridget Vae and Jim Taylor gave victim impact statements. Bridget, quote, you can't even begin to imagine the horror I felt when I listened to that tape. She went on to describe how scary it was to think she'd been sleeping beside Curtis every night when he was planning to kill her. In a written statement, Angela's husband Jim Taylor said that he was shocked and fearful and couldn't sleep for months. The judge said although Curtis and Angela sounded like novices who, when push came to shove, would never have been able to go through with it,

certain details showed a level of planning. These details included talking about wearing gloves, Angela discussing how they would start the fire with the curtains in Curtis's house and also developing an alibi for him. The judge went on to say that the plan wasn't developed on the spur of the moment and there is no evidence that it was ever abandoned. Both Curtis and Angela could have chosen to simply end their marriages, but killing their spouses would leave them with their family's assets. There would be no other rational reason for the murder scheme if not for money, the judge concluded. Adding the sentence must set an example that this type of behaviour is not on. The judge said the range generally falls between two years and life in prison. Angela Nicholson and Curtis Vey were both sentenced to three years in prison.

Both addressed the court. Angela said, quote, It was just words of anger and frustration. I regret my words. Crying, she apologized to her family and asked for Bridget to forgive her, saying that she had no intention of following through with what was discussed. Curtis said, quote, I deeply regret the hurt and pain everyone's gone through because of this. He also lamented the loss of a relationship with his family. In closing, the judge said, I feel sorry for your families and I feel sorry for both of you as well. Why good people do bad things is a mystery we will never know.

Thanks for listening and thanks to Savannah for originally suggesting this case to me. What do you think? Do you believe that Curtis and Angela were equally in on the plan? Or do you think it was largely driven by one of them? Do you believe that it was just talk with no action? How much do words matter on their own? I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can post on social media or come and join me in the Facebook group.

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