Photo: Vancouver Police Department

Akene Anigbo

One of the men accused of killing a Naramata woman in 2021 remains in custody on unrelated convictions, after he was again denied statutory release this week.

Ekene Anigbo and Jalen Falk, both 25 years old, were charged in April 2023 with first-degree murder for the killing of 57-year-old Kathleen Richardson. Richardson's body was found inside her Naramata home on June 9, 2021.

Anigbo is serving a four-year sentence for firearms convictions, stemming from an October 2021 arrest in Richmond. He was previously serving his sentence at Ontario's Millhaven Institution, but he was transferred to a B.C. prison this past December.

In a decision made earlier this week, the Parole Board of Canada denied Anigbo's statutory release for a second time, ruling that he's likely to "commit an offence causing death or serious harm to another person" if he's released.

Most offenders are granted statutory release after serving two-thirds of their sentence.

While he was denied statutory release, Anigbo's firearms sentence will expire in July. But he'll likely remain in custody after that date, as he still faces the outstanding murder charge.

'Security incidents' continue

The Parole Board of Canada previously denied Anigbo's statutory release in June, noting he was an active member of a gang while incarcerated and had been assessed as a "high risk for general and violent recidivism."

While this week's decision notes Anigbo is "not currently aligned" with any gang, his former gang ties "still present [him] with some challenges." Additionally, the Parole Board said Anigbo remains a high risk to reoffend.

"Your institutional behaviour is described as extremely poor, it has involved incidents of violence and threats; being in possession of contraband including an improvised weapon; being in possession of unauthorized items like a cell phone and drugs; and your behaviour has frequently required significant management intervention including disciplinary charges and multiple transfers to multiple Structured Interventions Units (SIU) at various institutions," the Parole Board stated.

"Since October 2024 you have been involved in about five security incidents: you assaulted another offender in the SIU; you uttered threats; you were in possession of contraband on two occasions, and your behaviour has been disruptive."

Anigbo said the recent assault that occurred in custody was actually an example of his progress.

"You reported that instead of stabbing the other offender, you and he engaged in a physical fight and then he fell down some stairs," the Parole Board noted.

In the previous June Parole Board decision, the board said Anigbo was involved in an April 2024 in-custody assault that resulted in "puncture wounds" to another inmates chest, and the victim required open-heart surgery.

While he admitted his gang-affiliation to the Parole Board last year, he said that he has not been involved in as much conflict since his "flag" for being a member of a "security threat group" - a Parole Board term for a gang - has been de-activated.

Back in October 2021 - four months after Richardson's killing but before he had been charged with the murder - Anigbo was named by the Vancouver Police Department as one of its top six most-dangerous Lower Mainland gang members.

Transferred to B.C.

The board said since the June review, Anigbo has "continued to be involved in offence-paralleling behaviours involving violence, drugs, and negative associates."

In December, he was transferred to a prison in the Pacific Region and was immediately placed in a Structured Intervention Unit.

SIUs were established in 2019 to replace the previous practice of "administrative segregation," which had been successfully challenged in court. Offenders are placed in SIUs when "they cannot be safely managed in the mainstream inmate population."

The only Pacific Region prison that offers SIUs is the Kent Institution in Agassiz, which is also the only maximum security prison in the region.

Murder case winds through courts

The killing of Richardson occurred about a month after the bodies of brothers Carlo and Erick Fryer were found in a remote area near Naramata. Richardson is the mother of Wade Cudmore, who was convicted last October of second-degree murder in the killing of the brothers.

Cudemore has continued to deny any involvement in the killings, but he was sentenced this past November to a life sentence, with no chance of parole for 18 years.

At trial, the court heard how the killings involved a drug deal gone wrong, among people who were involved in gang activity.

Anigo and Falk's murder case continues to slowly wind its way through Kelowna court, with a number of pre-trial applications over the past few months. Trial dates have yet to be set in the matter.