A 31-year-old Burnaby man has been found guilty of cultivating a large-scale marijuana grow-op in connection with a 2013 bust in a wealthy British Properties neighbourhood.
In handing down his verdict, Judge Bryce Dyer said the only rational conclusion he could reach was that Shane Michael Foster had helped set up and run a grow-op at 750 Eyremount Drive where police found about 1,100 marijuana plants growing in the basement in April 2013.
A co-accused in the case, 75-year-old Delores Davie, pleaded guilty to production of a controlled substance in connection with the grow-op in October 2014.
Dyer found Foster guilty after a trial in North Vancouver provincial court that focused on circumstantial evidence connecting him to the marijuana crop.
When police stopped Foster driving away from the house on April 10, 2013 he had smudges of potting soil on both his face and hands.
When he was arrested one week later, driving away from the same house, Foster had marijuana stems and leaves stuck to his socks and in the driver’s side footwell.
Foster’s fingerprint was found on one of the lighting ballasts in a basement grow room. A water bottle with his fingerprint was also found in one of the basement rooms.
In a voluntary statement to police, Foster said he went to the house to hang out with the woman who lived there. He told police the two generally talked about art, although he admitted to going downstairs “once in a while.”
Foster’s defence lawyer argued the evidence linking Foster to the grow-op was flimsy, pointing out that Foster didn’t have keys to the basement, while Davie did.
The judge didn’t agree.
Davie, who lived in the house when the grow-op was busted, was sentenced in October 2014 to two years’ probation, with conditions that included 50 hours of community work service and abiding by an curfew until October 2015.
According to information contained in documents submitted by police to obtain the search warrant, Davie had a Health Canada licence to possess marijuana at the time, but not to grow it.
Davie was originally also charged with possession of a firearm without a licence after police seized a loaded nine-millimetre handgun from the house during the raid.
She was also charged with theft of electricity after an investigation pointed to the use of a hydro bypass to power the grow-op. Those charges were later dropped.
A date for Foster’s sentencing has not yet been set.
