Murder victim's mother fights to keep killer from accessing his bitcoin stash

William Sandeson has another legal battle on his hands — this time over money.

Sandeson was convicted on Saturday of second-degree murder in the death of Taylor Samson in August of 2015. He is scheduled to be sentenced in April.

Samson's mother, Linda Boutilier, and her other son, Connor Samson, also launched a wrongful death suit against Sandeson in December over Taylor Samson's death.

As part of that lawsuit, Boutilier's lawyer, James Goodwin, sought and was granted a temporary injunction to prevent Sandeson from reclaiming a laptop police seized as part of their murder investigation.

Sandeson made an application to the trial judge in his murder case to have the laptop returned.

In testimony, Sandeson said there was a bitcoin wallet in the laptop, which he said was worth between $8,000 and $10,000.

In his injunction application, Goodwin gave a much higher dollar value for the bitcoin. He told court in December that it could be worth as much as $250,000. 

Goodwin said if Boutilier's lawsuit is successful, the funds in the bitcoin wallet could be paid to her and Connor as compensation. Sandeson had asked for the release of the laptop to use the funds to help defray his legal costs.

While a justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court granted the temporary injunction in December, he also imposed a publication ban on the proceedings in order to protect Sandeson's fair-trial rights in the murder case.

That publication ban was officially lifted during a court appearance on Thursday. However, the injunction on the laptop remains in place and the matter will return to court in May.