A convicted Nova Scotia murderer is asking a court to order police to return personal items seized during the investigation that led to his life sentence.
In February 2023, former medical student William Sandeson was convicted of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Dalhousie University student Taylor Samson during a drug deal in August 2015.
During a retrial in 2023, Sandeson confirmed that he dumped the 22-year-old’s body among several garbage bags in a tidal river that feeds the Bay of Fundy near Truro in central Nova Scotia.
Samson’s body has not yet been found. Sandeson is serving his sentence in a Quebec prison.
In an affidavit filed in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in February of this year, Sandeson says he was entitled to recover up to $300 in U.S. money that was seized from a safe in his Halifax apartment, as well as some personal property he says could be sent to his immediate family.
The statement, however, also says there are some exceptions to what he is seeking to regain. These include his handgun and ammunition, any narcotics or controlled substances, and blood-stained Canadian currency that police found during their investigation.
Get daily national news
Get Canada’s daily news delivered to your inbox so you never miss the top news of the day.
“Most of the items in my personal possessions have, in varying degrees, sentimental value, monetary value, and utility value to me and/or my immediate family,” the statement said.
Also, Sandeson’s statement says he wants to transfer ownership of “any item considered a weapon (eg knife) to my immediate family member who retrieves this property on my behalf from the state.”
Sandeson was convicted of first-degree murder after a jury trial in 2017. But that conviction was overturned on appeal and a new trial was ordered. Although the charge was first-degree murder, a second jury convicted him of second-degree murder.
During his second trial, the court heard Sandeson had invited Samson to his Halifax apartment to buy nine kilograms of cannabis worth $40,000. The accused insisted he shot the drug dealer in self-defence after a struggle with the much larger physics student.
The Crown argued that Sandeson, who was also a drug dealer, planned to kill Samson and steal the cannabis because the accused was deeply in debt and needed money to pay for medical school.
“I pulled the trigger, but I never meant to hurt anyone that night,” Sandeson told the court.
The Crown argued that in August 2015, Sandeson held a $78,000 line of credit and that he shot Samson in the back of the head shortly after he arrived at the Henry Street apartment.
Sandeson, meanwhile, is moving forward with a separate court bid to recover a laptop computer containing the cryptocurrency’s digital keys, part of which his family has been unable to recover, his statement says.
During a separate court hearing in 2024, a judge said Sandeson had at least $443,000 in bitcoins and another $198,000 in cash at the time he was jailed in 2015.
&copies 2026 The Canadian Press
