Killer’s Bitcoin returns to his family after four years of victim’s relatives trying to freeze it

A Nova Scotia judge has ordered a laptop holding convicted killer William Sandeson’s Bitcoin wallet returned to his family.

The judge found that prosecutors did not prove the Bitcoin was linked to the 2015 murder of Taylor Samson.

Why would a judge order a killer’s Bitcoin to be returned?

Justice John Bodurtha decided on Tuesday in Halifax Supreme Court to return convicted killer William Sandeson’s Bitcoin wallet to his family. Sandeson is currently serving a life sentence in a Quebec prison and took part in the hearing by video.

The judge said the Crown had to prove a link between the Bitcoin and the crime, and it did not. He said that the idea that Sandeson would use the Bitcoin in the drug deal was “hypothetical” and there was no proof that Sandeson meant to use it or any proof that he used it in connection with the murder.

The laptop which holds the wallet will be given back to Sandeson’s family, but the $5,000 in cash found in his apartment will not be returned, because the judge ruled it was “offence-related property.”

Police found the cash hidden at the bottom of a garbage can.

At trial, Sandeson testified that he used a $200,000 line of credit to buy drugs. His mother co-signed the credit line, which was meant to pay for university. It still had an $80,000 balance when he was arrested.

The value of the wallet is disputed. Sandeson has said it is worth $8,000 to $10,000, while a lawyer for Samson’s family has said it could be worth more than $200,000 today. Bitcoin (BTC) traded at about $78,563 on CoinMarketCap at the time of writing.

In a 2024 decision, Justice Cindy Bourgeois of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal found that Sandeson had about $640,000 in Bitcoin and cash when he was jailed. That decision denied him free legal help for his appeal.

How did Sandeson end up in prison?

Back in August 2015, Sandeson and Samson were both students at Dalhousie University. Sandeson, who was days away from starting medical school, set up a meeting at his Halifax apartment for what was meant to be a cannabis deal of more than 18 kilograms.

He shot Samson, kept the drugs and money, and dumped the body in the Bay of Fundy. Samson’s remains have never been found.

Sandeson was first found guilty of first-degree murder, but that verdict was overturned on appeal. At a retrial in 2023, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder. He admitted to the shooting but said it was self-defense.

Samson’s family has fought to keep the laptop locked away, and in December 2022, a court granted a temporary order blocking its return. Samson’s mother, Linda Boutilier, and his brother, Connor Samson, had started a wrongful death lawsuit.

Their lawyer, James Goodwin, argued that the Bitcoin could be used to pay them damages if they won.

Sandeson restarted the fight in April, when he filed a motion asking for his seized property back. The Crown then applied to keep the cash and laptop, saying they were tainted by crime. Boutilier has attended every court appearance in the case and was in the room for Tuesday’s ruling, though she declined to comment.

UK and US courts are also legislating their own versions of custody battles over crypto linked to crime, with over 61,000 BTC tied to Qian Zhimin in the UK and an American prisoner’s failed claim to $345 million in lost Bitcoin.