Judge releases Bitcoin wallet in murder case while drug-deal cash stays seized

A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge has ordered a laptop containing a Bitcoin wallet returned to the family of William Sandeson, a Canadian man serving a life sentence for the 2015 murder of Taylor Samson. Justice John Bodurtha ruled on Tuesday that prosecutors had not proved the cryptocurrency was linked to the killing.

“The Crown has not met its burden to demonstrate the cryptocurrency was used as part of the drug transaction, proceeds of crime, or otherwise tainted by criminality,” Bodurtha said, adding that its potential use in the deal was “hypothetical.” Sandeson, who appeared virtually at the hearing in Halifax, had filed a motion in April seeking the return of personal items seized when police searched his apartment after his arrest in 2015.

The judge did rule that about $3,600 (C$5,000) in cash found in Sandeson’s apartment after the murder was “offence-related property” and would not be returned. Sandeson has said the Bitcoin was worth between about $5,800 and $7,200 (C$8,000 to C$10,000), according to Global News. A lawyer representing Samson’s family in a separate wrongful death lawsuit, in which the cryptocurrency had been at the center, has said it could now be worth more than $144,000 (C$200,000). Global News did not report how much Bitcoin the wallet holds.

Sandeson, then 23 and about to start medical school at Dalhousie University, arranged for Samson, 22, to come to his apartment on August 15, 2015, to sell him cannabis that Sandeson had arranged to buy for C$40,000, according to prosecutors at his 2023 trial. Sandeson shot Samson, kept the drugs and the money, and later admitted to dumping his body in a river that feeds the Bay of Fundy. Samson’s remains have never been found.

Sandeson was convicted of first-degree murder in 2017, but an appeals court overturned the verdict in 2020. At a second trial in 2023, he admitted to shooting Samson but said he acted in self-defense. A jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence. He is serving his sentence in Quebec and will be eligible for parole in 2030.