Two Squamish men will be sentenced this month after pleading guilty to their involvement in the brutal death of Robert McIntosh, who was murdered five years ago.
Their sentences will mark the end of a case that was better known for the code of silence that shrouded a small community after the lawyer’s murder.
Ryan Aldridge pleaded guilty last week to manslaughter after admitting he delivered four soccer style-kicks to the victim’s head and neck while he lay on a bedroom floor unconscious.
One of those kicks tore an artery, throwing blood vessels into spasm, cutting off the oxygen supply to McIntosh’s brain.
Ryan MacMillan pleaded guilty to assault.
In a taped confession Aldridge told police that it was MacMillan who had knocked the lawyer to the ground before he delivered the fatal blows.
The murder took place on a New Year’s Eve almost five years ago.
McIntosh, a 40-year-old father of young twins, went to check on a house party at the home of his friend Dr. Richard Cudmore, who was vacationing at the time.
He found more than 100 young people drinking and doing drugs at the house. McIntosh went upstairs to a bedroom and never came back down again.
The RCMP investigation was stymied over the course of five years after witnesses refused to come forward. Police knew there were people in the bedroom where the murder took place but no one would talk about what happened.
Police interviewed Aldridge three times but it was only when they went undercover that they were able to get a confession from him.
It was perhaps the photo and a video of McIntosh’s twins, Emma and Sam, which finally compelled Aldridge to confess.
McIntosh’s former wife, Katy Hutchison spoke outside the courtroom after Aldridge’s hearing last week.
"I think when you put a name to a face and you look at the faces of two five-year-olds who lost their dad, it comes home. I think it has come home for Ryan," Hutchison told The Province newspaper.
Sentencing for MacMillan will take place on Dec. 20 in North Vancouver. Aldridge will return for sentencing on Dec. 11.
