A man from the Wakaw area and a woman from Melfort will serve federal sentences for conspiring to kill their spouses in a case that shocked many in rural Saskatchewan and beyond.
Curtis Vey, 53, and Angela Nicholson, 52, received three-year sentences on two counts each of conspiracy to commit murder. Chief Justice Martel Popescul handed down the sentence Friday at Court of Queen’s Bench in Prince Albert.
A jury found the pair guilty in June. Vey and Nicholson were charged after Vey’s wife, Brigitte, secretly recorded them discussing the murder plot at Vey’s home on July 1, 2013.
On the recording, the pair talked about lighting Vey’s farmhouse near Wakaw on fire, presumably with Brigitte inside, and making Nicholson’s estranged husband, Jim Taylor, disappear.
“You can’t even begin to imagine the horror I felt when I listened to that tape,” Brigitte Vey said in court, reading from her victim impact statement. She described how scary it was to think she had been sleeping beside Vey every night, not knowing what they were planning.
In his statement, Taylor wrote he was “shocked and fearful” and couldn’t sleep for months.
Subsequent police interviews revealed the plan also involved drugging both Brigitte and Taylor and starting a grease fire at Vey’s home by leaving a pot on a lit stove.
In his decision, Popescul said although the pair sounded like novices who “when push came to shove, would have never been able to go through with it,” certain details showed a level of planning. Those included talking about wearing gloves, starting Vey’s curtains on fire and developing an alibi for Vey.
The scheme was not developed on the “spur of the moment” and there is no evidence that it was ever abandoned, Popescul said, adding the sentence must denunciate this type of behaviour.
He said the range of sentencing for murder conspiracy generally falls between two years and life in prison. Crown prosecutor Lori O’Connor argued for a six-year sentence for both Vey and Nicholson, citing financial motivation and the fact that two people were targeted as aggravating factors.
There would be no other rational reason for the murder scheme if not for money, Popescul concluded.
Both Vey and Nicholson could have chosen to end their marriages, but killing their spouses would leave them with their families’ assets, he noted. Popescul listed evidence that Brigitte had recently signed a will, and that Nicholson discussed preparing a will in which Taylor would leave all his assets to her.
Both defence lawyers disagreed that it was a conspiracy motivated by money, and said they were expecting a lower sentence.
“We thought there were a myriad of mitigating facts, the lack of record, the clumsy conspiracy effort,” Nicholson’s lawyer, Ron Piche, said outside the courthouse.
Piche had argued for a six-month sentence followed by a two-year probation period, while Vey’s lawyer, Aaron Fox, proposed a sentence of less than two years, arguing police found no further evidence of a murder conspiracy plot connected to Vey other than the recording.
Although Nicholson brought up the murder plot in the recorded conversation, neither defence lawyer argued that one person was more blameworthy than the other, Piche said. Popescul agreed.
“It was just words of anger and frustration,” Nicholson told court. “I regret my words.”
Crying, she apologized to her family and asked for Brigitte’s forgiveness, insisting that she had no intention of following through with what was discussed.
The words his client spoke were out of frustration from years of being in an unhealthy marriage, Piche said in his arguments. He pointed to support letters from Nicholson’s community describing her as a woman of integrity who had a troubled life.
Piche and Fox said they will need to take some time before considering an appeal. O’Connor said the Crown will also have to discuss if it will file an appeal.
Hopefully, the three-year sentences will deter others from hatching these kinds of plots, she told reporters.
“Despite how unhappy your marriage is, it’s not okay to kill your spouse,” she said.
Vey understands the impact his actions have had on his wife, kids and on Nicholson’s family, Fox said in his arguments.
“I deeply regret the hurt and pain everybody’s gone through because of this,” Vey said when given a chance to speak. He also lamented the loss of a relationship with his family.
“I feel sorry for your families and I feel sorry for both of you as well,” Popsecul said in closing. “Why good people do bad things is a mystery we will never know.”
Related
![]()
