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10-year sentence sought for Liza Belcourt's murder-for-hire plot

By Staff K 07/02/2012 16:30:00

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10-year sentence sought for Liza Belcourt's murder-for-hire plot

The Crown wants a Surrey mother to spend up to a decade in prison after hiring two gang members to kill her ex-husband, it was revealed in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Liza Belcourt and her co-accused Jordan Doiron and David Laidlaw were all found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder last year, for plotting the death of Belcourt's ex-husband, Richard Noniewicz, in 2009.

During Tuesday's sentencing hearing, Crown lawyer Sandra Dworkin read parts of a statement from Noniewicz, which said "there are no words to describe" the impact of the crime, and that it was "pretty surreal" to learn from police that strangers were conspiring with his ex-wife to murder him.

Belcourt and Noniewicz had an acrimonious break up in 2006, followed by a bitter custody battle over their four-year-old son, which saw Belcourt file trumped up charges against Noniewicz, all of which were dropped.

By 2009, Belcourt had decided to have Noniewicz killed and hired Doiron and Laidlaw through her connections to a south Vancouver gang.

The plot was uncovered during Project Rebellion, a Vancouver police crackdown on gang activity in the city.

In court on Tuesday, Noniewicz's statement detailed how the couple's son, now seven, is still having nightmares about his mother plotting to kill his father, and undergoing psychological counselling.

The Crown went on to argue that the murder plot posed a risk to the community as a whole, as the trio planned to shoot Noniewicz in a public place, such as outside his home or when working as a tow truck driver, where someone else could have got hurt.

It's not clear how long the sentencing hearing will last, or when the judge will make her ruling. Lawyers for the co-accused will make their submissions later, after Laidlaw has seen a medical specialist for an ailment that is likely cancer.

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