Jury finds man not guilty of murder in deadly 2021 Scotch Creek shooting

Photo: KTW File

The jury box in Courtroom 5D at the Kamloops Law Courts.

It didn't take a jury long to find a North Shuswap gunman not guilty following a second-degree murder trial at the Kamloops Law Courts.

Jurors deliberated for less than a day after listening to a week and a half of evidence in the trial of Paul Binder, charged after John Vance was shot dead in Scotch Creek on June 25, 2021. They returned with an acquittal shortly after 2 p.m. on Friday.

The jury also found Binder not guilty of the lesser included offence of manslaughter.

"It was just a long trial and it was a long process as well for Mr. Binder and his mom, and we knew that the jury had a lot to think about. There was a strong argument on the accident and strong arguments on self-defence and defence of property," defence lawyer Jay Michi said outside court.

"We'll never know what aspect it was that they decided on, but we are very relieved for our client and for his mother, and that they can move on with the next chapter of their lives."

The jury heard Binder was holding a semi-automatic nine millimetre handgun that went off and killed Vance. The shooting was caught on security cameras.

Binder’s defence lawyers argued Vance was the aggressor, only shot after grabbing Binder’s handgun and causing it to fire. In the alternative, they wanted jurors to determine that Binder acted in ”justified self-defence."

Prosecutors argued Binder, who operated the car wash, was angry when he went to retrieve his handgun from his nearby home and either intended to kill Vance or was reckless as to whether Vance lived or died.

Throughout the trial, the jury heard Vance was known to local police and his friendship with Binder soured in the months leading up to the shooting, at one point resulting in a punch up.