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First-degree murder conviction in 2009 Surrey shooting

David Sadler guilty of first-degree murder in the 2009 Surrey shooting death of James Ward Erickson.
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A jury has found 31-year-old David Sadler guilty of first-degree murder in the 2009 Surrey shooting death of James Ward Erickson.

Erickson, 25, was gunned down shortly after 9 p.m, Feb. 2nd, in his second-storey apartment at Whalley’s Parkside Apartments, in the 13300-block of 105A Avenue.

“In the initial stages there were persons of interest that were identified but there was not sufficient evidence to support charge approval,” said Staff Sergeant Jennifer Pound, spokeswoman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. She said the shooting was connected to “low-level drug trade.”

IHIT’s Cold Case Team took up the investigation in May 2013 and six months later arrested Sadler. On Sunday, eight years after Erickson was killed, a B.C. Supreme Court jury in New Westminster convicted Sadler and he received the mandatory sentence of 25 years in prison,

Pound said IHIT’s Cold Case Team has been “exceptionally successful in seeing these tragic cases to the end, despite time passed.

READ ALSO: Two men sentenced in Surrey cold case homicide

“It is extremely rewarding for the investigators to see justice served as a result of their commitment and perseverance and there is no great testament to this than a convicted for first-degree murder.”

tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com



About the Author: Tom Zytaruk

I write unvarnished opinion columns and unbiased news reports for the Surrey Now-Leader.
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