From the Courts: A Mess of Trouble

Photo:Tim Krockak/Herald Staff


As reported by the Herald's Steve Bruce:

A man accused of killing a cab driver in January 2009 has admitted that he took part in an armed robbery at a Dartmouth store the following month.

Chaze Lamar Thompson, 20, was arrested after three young men, one of whom was brandishing a handgun, robbed Aladdin Video & Variety on Portland Street on Feb. 5, 2009.

Thompson was supposed to stand trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax this week on 10 charges stemming from the holdup. Instead, he pleaded guilty to three counts: robbery, wearing a mask in the commission of an offence and breaching a recognizance.

Justice Robert Wright accepted the guilty pleas and scheduled Thompson’s sentencing for March 18.

Crown attorney Michelle James and defence lawyer Peter Planetta are expected to present a joint sentencing recommendation to the judge.

Thompson, who is in custody at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth, also faces a charge of first-degree murder in the death of cabbie Sergei Kostin.

Police announced two months ago that they had charged Thompson with killing Kostin, a driver with Bob’s & Blue Bell Taxi in Dartmouth.

According to court documents, the murder was committed on Jan. 17, 2009, in Cherry Brook, outside Dartmouth.

Kostin, a 40-year-old native of Ukraine who was married with two children, picked up a fare that day at about 3:30 p.m. at a convenience store on Gaston Road in Dartmouth.

It was later determined the cab’s global positioning system had been disabled at the end of Johnston Road in Cherry Brook.

Kostin failed to show up at a friend’s birthday party that night and his friends reported him missing on Jan. 19.

His green Chevrolet Impala was discovered a day later in North Preston. It had been burned and abandoned behind a derelict building on a small lane called Amos Walter Drive.

On April 1, police officers found Kostin’s remains in a wooded area about a kilometre away. The discovery was made just off an unpaved section of Upper Governor Street in North Preston.

Police haven’t revealed the cause of death, but sources say Kostin was shot.

Thompson, whose nickname is PC, lived on Bras Dor Lane in Dartmouth before he was picked up by police after the robbery.

He’s due back in Dartmouth provincial court April 27 on the murder charge.