PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "According to affidavits collected by Tallio’s lawyers, other members of the community, including Tallio’s uncle, Cyril, now dead, were seen by neighbours going into Mack’s grandparents’ house in the early morning of the day she was killed. Many of those interviewed by Tallio’s lawyers were not interviewed by police in 1983."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Police arrested Tallio for the murder and interrogated him three times before he spoke to a lawyer. A doctor who did a physical exam of Tallio the day of his arrest testified that the teenager did not seem to understand his right to an attorney at that time. During two audio recorded interrogations by RCMP officers, Tallio maintained his innocence — that he had found Delavina Mack’s body but not caused her harm. In a third interrogation, which was not audio recorded, the interrogator obtained a confession. The confession was found to be inadmissible at trial. According to affidavits collected by Tallio’s lawyers, other members of the community, including Tallio’s uncle, Cyril, now dead, were seen by neighbours going into Mack’s grandparents’ house in the early morning of the day she was killed. Many of those interviewed by Tallio’s lawyers were not interviewed by police in 1983. Tallio initially pleaded not guilty to the crime, but, days into his trial, his lawyer entered a guilty plea on his behalf. Pleading guilty to second-degree murder meant Tallio would get a life sentence, but be able to apply for parole after 10 years, instead of the 25 years imposed on those convicted of first-degree murder. But Tallio would be repeatedly denied parole because behind bars he maintained his innocence."
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STORY: "He spent nearly 40 years in prison for killing a toddler. Now, Phillip Tallio is going back to prison," by Reporter Alex McKeen (Vancouver Bureau), published on August 19, 2021;
GIST: A man who spent almost four decades in prison for the murder of his toddler cousin — a crime he insists he did not commit — has lost his bid to have the conviction overturned.
British Columbia’s top court on Thursday rejected an appeal from Phillip Tallio, who will now return to prison after 19 months out on bail.
Tallio pleaded guilty and was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of his cousin, Delavina Mack, in 1983. He was released on bail in January 2020 in anticipation of a long-awaited appeal.
Over the decades, Tallio has maintained that he did not kill his cousin — that he was just the person who found her body.
He had appealed his conviction on the grounds that his lawyer did not adequately explain the consequences of his guilty plea, and that the investigation into Delavina’s sexual assault and death itself was inadequate and failed to find the true killer.
In their judgment, posted online Thursday morning, the three justices of B.C.’s top court said fresh evidence presented in Tallio’s appeal did not demonstrate that there had been a miscarriage of justice when he pleaded guilty and was convicted of killing Mack.
“The rules governing the admissibility of the appellant’s evidence are not attenuated because he is Indigenous,” the justices wrote. “He must prove the facts that warrant setting his plea aside on a balance of probabilities.”
The court agreed with Crown counsel that Tallio had received adequate legal representation in 1983, and was not persuaded by DNA evidence and testimony regarding possible other suspects.
“The evidence the appellant relies on to implicate alternate suspects is speculative or circumstantial and does not come close to meeting the balance of probabilities threshold,” the justices wrote.
The crime happened on the Nuxalk Nation reserve in Bella Coola. The victim, who was 22 months old, was being watched at her grandparents’ house while her parents were at a nearby house party at the home of Cyril and Nina Tallio, Phillip’s aunt and uncle.
Phillip Tallio, who was 17 at the time and had been living with his aunt and uncle, ended up staying up all night while his aunt and uncle’s party was going on. According to his version of events, and witnesses, he was not drinking that night, but stayed awake because there was nowhere to sleep with all the party guests around.
Tallio says he went in the early morning hours of April 23 to check on Delavina Mack, as her mother had asked him to do earlier. Neighbours witnessed him entering Mack’s grandparent’s house, then leaving about 10 minutes later looking scared and running back to his aunt and uncle’s house.
Tallio says that was when he found Mack’s grandparents asleep in the living room, and Mack’s body in a bedroom. He says he tried to wake up the grandparents, but that they wouldn’t wake.
Police arrested Tallio for the murder and interrogated him three times before he spoke to a lawyer. A doctor who did a physical exam of Tallio the day of his arrest testified that the teenager did not seem to understand his right to an attorney at that time.
During two audio recorded interrogations by RCMP officers, Tallio maintained his innocence — that he had found Delavina Mack’s body but not caused her harm. In a third interrogation, which was not audio recorded, the interrogator obtained a confession. The confession was found to be inadmissible at trial.
According to affidavits collected by Tallio’s lawyers, other members of the community, including Tallio’s uncle, Cyril, now dead, were seen by neighbours going into Mack’s grandparents’ house in the early morning of the day she was killed. Many of those interviewed by Tallio’s lawyers were not interviewed by police in 1983.
Tallio initially pleaded not guilty to the crime, but, days into his trial, his lawyer entered a guilty plea on his behalf. Pleading guilty to second-degree murder meant Tallio would get a life sentence, but be able to apply for parole after 10 years, instead of the 25 years imposed on those convicted of first-degree murder. But Tallio would be repeatedly denied parole because behind bars he maintained his innocence.
The appeal hearing was held for Tallio’s appeal this past October. Sarah Rauch, a Vancouver lawyer representing members of Mack’s family, attended that hearing with some of those family members, and said that it was important for them to be there.
“Of course the little girl is always in their thoughts,” Rauch said in October. “They are very much here representing her.”
The Star has reached out to Rauch for comment on the judgment.
Tallio’s case was taken on by the UBC Innocence Project — a volunteer effort in which students and lawyers investigate claims of wrongful conviction. Rachel Barsky was assigned to the case in 2008, and remains his lawyer. Barsky said after Thursday’s hearing they will attempt to appeal the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.
“This is not the result we wanted,” she said behind her face covering at the court. “We always knew we’d be playing the long game.”
Tallio has been out of prison on bail since the court agreed to hear his appeal in January of 2020. In that time, he has reconnected with his former girlfriend, Theresa Hood, with whom he shares three granddaughters. Tallio and Hood’s daughter, Honey, died in 2018.
Hood said in an interview prior to the release of the judgment that she would stand behind him even if his appeal was rejected.
“It would be good to let him see his grandchildren grow up and see them graduate,” she said. “If not then we have to do the next step.”
The entire story can be read at:
