A man who killed his former boss — leaving the “lifeless body and gruesome murder scene” to be discovered by the victim’s daughter at the family business in Vancouver — confessed to the crime voluntarily, a judge has ruled.
Brian Roger Holt was charged with second-degree murder in the 2019 killing of 78-year-old John McIver. The British Columbia prosecutor’s office confirmed he received an automatic life sentence without parole for 10 years.
The sentence followed a guilty plea entered on June 23 – the same day a judge ruled that Holt’s confessions would be admissible at trial.
Although the sentencing decision is not yet publicly available, Judge Kathleen M. Kerr’s ruling on the confession was posted online, shedding more light on both the crime and the investigation.
THE MURDER
The court heard Holt was an employee of McIver’s Appliances in South Vancouver until 2015 – roughly four years before the murder.
“He didn’t leave on good terms. He believed he was owed substantial overtime payments. By June 2019, Mr. Holt was experiencing significant financial difficulties and was facing eviction from his apartment,” Kerr wrote.
A few weeks before McIver was found dead in his store, Holt showed up at McIver’s family home “out of the blue,” Kerr continued, explaining that Holt told McIver he wanted to buy appliances for a building he managed. McIver’s daughter later found out that this building did not exist.
John Leslie McIver is seen in this undated image.
On the morning of June 26, 2019, Holt showed up at the appliance store where he was invited and stayed for about half an hour.
“During this meeting, Mr. Holt and Mr. McIver had some kind of argument that turned physical. Mr Holt became angry, reached for a metal hand tool and hit Mr McIver in the head. He then hit Mr McIver in the head with a motorbike which was on a nearby workbench and strangled Mr McIver with an electrical cable,” the court heard.
McIver’s daughter found her father dead when she arrived for work this morning. The “unusual interplay” of Holt’s visit to the family home and surveillance footage of Holt from the day of the murder “led to his identification as a suspect,” the judge wrote. Holt was seen going in and out of the appliance store and later tried to use McIver’s credit and debit cards at nearby ATMs.
THE ARREST
On July 3, 2019, court documents said Holt was walking near the McIvers’ home when members of the emergency response team deployed a “flash blast” before arresting him at gunpoint.
“Mr. Holt was cooperative, compliant and courteous during this arrest,” Kerr wrote.
He was taken in for questioning. Holt remained in custody for about 24 hours and was questioned twice by police before being released without charge.
On July 23, he was arrested again after an investigation turned up DNA evidence linking him to the crime scene. That arrest, Kerr said, also happened “without incident.” About five hours after he was taken into custody, Holt confessed.
“I walk around the neighborhood and I think that the children and the women or the little children are afraid of me or they can see something like you can see it on my face. I don’t know, I don’t want to walk around and live like this,” Holt told police after confessing to the crime, according to a transcript cited by the judge.
“I did something wrong. Gotta screw myself…admit it. I have to take responsibility,”
THE CONFESSIONS
Holt’s defense argued that Holt’s ability to make that confession voluntarily was undermined through a series of “subtle inducements,” Kerr said, summing up the argument. Although no allegations of mistreatment or abuse were made, Holt’s lawyer told the court that the extensive police questioning had a “cumulative effect” that denied Holt free will.
The judge, rejecting the argument, said there was no evidence of coercion or fraud. She further found that the “persistent interrogations,” which included repeated appeals to Holt’s “conscience and morals,” were “legitimate means” of conducting the interrogation that ultimately led to the confession.
“The police were not coercive in their approach to Mr Holt. Instead, they were polite, courteous and respectful throughout,” Kerr ruled.
“In this case, Mr Holt’s own conscience and genuine remorse led him to confess.”
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