Canadian court rules to return Bitcoin wallet to family of a murderer, prosecutors failed to prove its connection to the murder case.

November 4: Justice John Bodurtha of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Canada, ruled on Tuesday that a laptop containing a Bitcoin wallet should be returned to the family of incarcerated murderer William Sandeson. The judge found that prosecutors failed to prove that the Bitcoin in the wallet was connected to a 2015 murder case, nor could they prove that it was proceeds from drug trafficking or criminal proceeds, and therefore it should not be confiscated.

Sandeson killed fellow student Taylor Samson in 2015. In 2023, a jury convicted him of second-degree murder. He is currently serving a life sentence and will first become eligible for parole in 2030. The Bitcoin wallet involved in this case was previously seized by police at his residence, and the specific amount of coins held has not been disclosed.

There is considerable dispute over the wallet's value: Sandeson claims it is worth about CAD 8,000 to CAD 10,000, while the victim's family argued in a separate wrongful death civil lawsuit that the wallet may currently be worth more than CAD 200,000. The court also ruled that CAD 5,000 in cash seized at Sandeson's residence after the incident is crime-related property and will not be returned.