James Lee Busch was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without eligibility for parole for 25 years for what the judge called the “cold-blooded killing” of a Metchosin man.
“You extinguished the life of a man simply returning from work on a Monday afternoon, a good man, just returning from work,” said Justice David Crossin.
“But you didn’t just kill him. You butchered and mutilated him and left him lying in his own blood. It was hateful. It was unspeakable.”
On Wednesday, a jury convicted Busch of the first-degree murder of Martin Payne. His co-accused, Zachary Armitage, had already entered a guilty plea to first-degree murder on Nov. 28. The two men were inmates at William Head minimum security prison who walked away at low tide on the evening of July 7, 2019 and murdered Payne in his home the next day.
Busch, who flipped his middle finger and swore at Payne’s family when he was convicted, opted not to address the court. He was placed in leg shackles at the hearing.
Payne’s daughters, sister, ex-wife and best friend of 47 years spoke at the sentencing hearing, calling the 60-year-old provincial government employee a kind and gentle man who never hurt anyone.
Calla Payne said it’s too soon to ask how her father’s murder has affected her life.
“Instead, ask me in a few years when I have to walk myself down the aisle. Ask me in 10 years when I have to explain to my future children why they can never meet their grandfather. Ask me in 50 years when I’m telling family stories to my grandchildren and have to include the terrifying story of what happened on July 8, 2019 and how it has affected and changed our family forever,” she said in her victim impact statement.
“The mysterious thing for me is my father could have been anyone,” she said.
“How many of us have driven home after work on a Monday looking forward to decompressing in the sanctity of our own home?”
Instead, when her father entered his “safe space,” he was greeted with terror, she said.
“All I can do is hope, hope that in his final moments he imagined us putting his arms around him in a massive group hug one last time and that thought gave him peace … and freed him from all pain.”
In her victim impact statement, Payne’s sister Colleen described the moment an RCMP officer came out of her brother’s house and walked slowly towards her.
“I will never forget the look on his face. He put his hand on my shoulder and told me my brother was inside and that he was unresponsive. I collapsed on his shoulder and sobbed.”
She tried to make sense of Payne’s death and didn’t realize for days it was a homicide.
“I couldn’t grasp that such a thing could happen in our city, to my family, to my little brother Marty, who was the sweetest and most gentle of men.”
Like other family members, she said, she now feels anxious, unsafe and disconnected.
“More than anything, my constant companion is knowing that the last moments of my brother’s life were filled with unimaginable terror, that he was bound and beaten and his head was chopped four times with an axe, that he knew his life was ending, that he was being killed and his neck was stabbed through from one side to the other with a bowie knife.”
The crime has left a hole in her heart that can never be repaired, she said.
Catherine Stewart, the mother of Payne’s children, said she feels terrible for her daughters’ suffering and loss.
“It pains me to see their pain,” she said.
When she heard of Payne’s death, Stewart said, she felt “intense wracking pain… like my body had been smashed into with a truck.
“I felt lost and more alone than I have ever felt in my life,” she said. “Marty should still be here.”
Jessica Payne said her father was easygoing, happy-go-lucky, filled with joy and humour, and even though he didn’t like air travel he went to the other side of the world to visit her.
“His murder was a betrayal of the joy he gave to the world,” she said.
Ian Scott, who met Payne in junior high, described his friend as a positive and happy man.
“I miss so much the crazy chemistry we shared that allowed us to enjoy ongoing rivalries in any sport … marathon tennis matches that went on and on, street hockey, table hockey, snooker and long jump.”
Scott said he also missed the annoying things Payne did. “Often when I showed up for dinner, I would be met with a blast from the garden hose that was deliberate and unprovoked.”
Armitage is to be sentenced Tuesday morning.
