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Gillian Guess (born 1955) is a Vancouver woman who was convicted in 1998 of obstruction of justice after becoming romantically involved with a murder defendant while she was a juror in his 1995 trial.
Her case became significant because it set legal precedents in four areas of Canadian Law: it was the first case where a juror had sexual relations with a murder defendant during his trial; the only case where a juror has faced criminal sanction for the decision they have made; the only case in Canadian law where jury room discussions were made part of the public record.
Police allegations
According to the Vancouver Police Department, Peter Gill (also known as Preet Sarbjit Gill) and his brother-in-law ran a gang involved in the drug trade in Vancouver. Police believed that in February 1994, the gang lured Jimsher Dosanjh (aged 26) to an alley, where they murdered him with machine guns. Two months later, the gang allegedly also murdered Dosanjh's brother Ranjit.
Relationship between Guess and Gill
In the case of Regina v. Gill, Peter Gill was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Five of his associates, Bhupinder (Bindy) Johal, Rajinder Kumar Benji, Michael Kent Budai, Ho Sik (Phil) Kim, and Sun News Lal were tried with him on the murder charges. The trial began on February 27, 1995, and lasted eight months. It was one of the longest, most expensive, and most complicated trials in British Columbia history. Gillian Guess was selected to serve as a juror for the murder trial. During the trial, Guess and Gill started a relationship that became sexual.
Guess was quickly attracted to Gill, a man eight years her junior. According to court clerk Emma Hyde, Guess would stare at Gill and "She would flip her hair and look seductive". Later Gill approached Guess at McDonald's and told her he was innocent of the charges. Sometime later, the two started to flirt outside the courtroom. Gill pursued the relationship, and Gill and Guess had an intimate conversation and kissed in Stanley Park. The relationship became sexual. Guess said, "My attraction to him was a complete intoxication... I got to the point where I couldn't see straight. It just became an obsession."
Court officers informed the judge of the inappropriate behaviour, and the Honourable Judge Braidwood warned Gill about his behaviour, but he never spoke to Guess. The relationship continued, and when Guess asked Gill if she should find a way to get off the jury, he told her to stay. He also told her to convict two of his co-defendants, but not him.
In May 2001, Peter Gill and his associates Budai and Kim were ordered to be retried by the British Columbia Court of Appeal on the first degree murder charges. However, the Crown never retried them. Instead, Peter Gill was convicted for obstruction of justice. He received a sentence of six years in prison.
Regina v. Guess
A week after the acquittal of Peter Gill, Guess and Gill were seen dancing together at a night club. Two weeks after the trial, the police observed Gill spending the night with Guess at her townhouse. Police investigated, and received authorization to place secret listening devices in Guess's bedroom, and to tap her phone. They recorded her admitting to others, including her daughter, that she had been involved in a romantic relationship with Gill while she was a juror at his trial.
In 1998, Crown prosecutor Joseph Bellows laid an obstruction of justice charge against Gillian Guess, arguing she had violated s. 139 (2) of the Canadian Criminal Code. Guess pleaded not guilty. Guess seemed to enjoy all the media attention she received during the trial, and she seemed determined to prove that she had done nothing illegal. She said, "After eight months even the trial judge started looking good." She also stated: "It didn't matter if I had sex with all the accused and everyone in the public gallery."
Guess was convicted of obstruction of justice. After being convicted she said, "I have been convicted for falling in love and nothing more. I have not committed a crime." She was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was released after serving 3 months in a minimum security women's facility known as "Camp Cupcake." She appealed her sentence, but the appeal was dismissed on November 2, 2000.
Media coverage
The trial of Gillian Guess became a media sensation, with reporters coming from as far away as Germany and New Zealand to cover it. The Gillian Guess story was also told on the news magazine show Inside Edition, and on the ABC News Show 20/20. Gillian Guess was also photographed for Marie Claire magazine. In 1998, Gillian Guess wrote a letter to the editor of "The Peak", the Simon Fraser University campus newspaper, complimenting the paper on an article about her.
Her story was the subject of a 2004 movie, The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess, and was the basis of the Law & Order episode "Hubris".
References
- ^ Wood, Chris (December 16, 2013) . "Guess Guilty of Obstruction". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Archived from the original on 2007-01-02. originally published in Maclean's on July 1, 1998.
- ^ Honourable Mr. Justice Davies. "Regina v. Gill", British Columbia Supreme Court, July 2, 2002.
- ^ Honourable Mr. Justice Low. "Regina v. Guess", British Columbia Court of Appeal, November 2, 2000.
- ^ Cunningham, David, "No Apologies", B.C. Report Magazine, 1998. Archived 2006-10-14 at the Wayback Machine.
- "The peak (9/11/1998) letters: Publicly stoned for refusing stereotypes". Archived from the original on 2007-02-25. Retrieved 2006-11-24.
- "The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess". IMDb.