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Twenty-four-year-old Dustin Robert Moir yelped incoherently between sobs as the jury read its verdict: guilty of the first-degree murder of Abbotsford’s 14-year-old Chelsey Acorn.



The announcement came late Tuesday evening, at around 10:45 p.m., in an empty Chilliwack Supreme Court room.



Moir had spent the 20 minutes prior pacing the vacant foyer with his girlfriend, weeping and hugging.



When the jury members finally entered – looking tired and worn, some tearful – few looked at Moir, who was in a glass box in the centre of the room, crying.



Once the verdict was read, Moir whimpered as he put his head between his knees.



He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 25 years, although he has the possibility of application for parole after 15 years.



His victim’s body was discovered by hikers near the Carolin Mines exit off the Coquihalla Highway in April 2006.Considered a youth at risk, under the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development, Acorn went missing from an Abbotsford-area group home in June 2005.



The names of Moir and his father, 56-year-old Jesse West, surfaced through investigation of Acorn’s cellphone records, and information from friends and social workers.



The two accused were initially being tried together, but their cases were split in late January, with West’s own trial due in January next year.



West, from Victoria, and Moir, who formerly lived in Abbotsford, Surrey and Whistler, were truckers who sometimes worked together.





Chelsey Acorn disappeared from an Abbotsford-area group home in June 2005. Her body was found by hikers near Hope in April 2006.



Submitted Photo



Following Tuesday’s verdict, Crown prosecutors John Hempstead and Carolyn Kramer breathed a sigh of relief, and Hempstead mouthed “thank-you” to the jury.



Crown counsel offered their continued condolences to Lisa Acorn (Chelsey’s mother), and commended her on the strength she’s shown through this “long, difficult and trying process.” They also congratulated homicide investigators and the undercover police units that went to “all extents within the law to find the perpetrators” of the crime.



When Lisa Acorn arrived at the courthouse moments after the verdict, she was all smiles, hugging everyone around her.



“I just feel – ahhhh,” she said, exhaling deeply and waving her hands down her body.



“I’m just exhilarated, and I knew all along that God has his hand in this. Chelsey got her justice because she deserved it. It’s just the beginning of her justice.”



During the three-month trial, Crown called a number of undercover RCMP officers to give testimony on the long and elaborate “Mr. Big” sting, in which they posed as a lucrative crime ring.



Moir and West were led to believe they were going to join the organization following an interview with the “crime boss.”



The jury watched an interview between Moir and the crime boss, in which Moir admitted to helping murder Acorn for the promise of $15,000 from his father.



He said his father picked him up in Surrey on the day of the murder, with Chelsea in the car. Moir said they drove to Merritt for a coffee, and took turns having sex with the teen on the way back to the Coquihalla Valley, where they set up a campsite in the bush. They dug a grave while Chelsea was in the tent.



Moir described how West choked Acorn from behind for a couple of minutes. Then Moir “jumped” on her and choked her for a few more seconds, because he saw her move. He then demonstrated how he threw a large rock on Acorn’s head.



In the opening days of the trial, the jury heard a pathologist testify that Acorn’s body was nude when buried, and that her skull had been crushed. No clothes, jewelry or other personal effects had been found in the grave. That evidence had been held back by police during their investigation.



Later in the trial, Moir’s ex-roommate, Steven Dudley, gave testimony linking Acorn to Moir. He told the jury that the two dated for a few weeks between April and May of 2005 – a month later she went missing.



During the series of taped conversations with undercover officers, it was revealed Acorn may have been killed because she witnessed a drug deal.



Moir was the only witness called on behalf of the defence counsel, claiming what he told the crime boss was a lie to impress him and keep his job.



During his testimony, Moir admitted to being at the scene of Acorn’s murder and helping his dad bury the body, but denied knowing the intention of his father beforehand, or being offered any cash incentive to help.



In addition, Moir maintained that he had no relationship with Acorn.



The defence also referenced scenarios and past testimony to paint West as an intimidating, forceful, and violent individual, who Moir feared.



The pair were arrested in a final meeting with the undercover officers in March 2007. While being transported in a police van equipped with a recording mike, the pair discussed their situation. Moir pleaded with his father to take more responsibility for the crime because “he was younger and had his whole life ahead of him.”



Before the jury left to deliberate, Judge William Grist directed that audio recordings of West talking with an undercover officer be disregarded.



West’s jury trial will begin on Jan. 24, 2011, and is scheduled to last approximately six weeks





Dustin Moir, outside Chilliwack Supreme Court prior to the verdict in his trial.





Chelsey Acorn

Dustin Moir pleaded with his father to take "more responsibility" for 14-year-old Chelsey Acorn's death in a conversation captured by a hidden microphone in a police van used to transport the accused murderers after their arrest.



Crown prosecutor John Hempstead questioned Moir about the emotional exchange in his cross examination Wednesday in B.C. Supreme Court in Chilliwack, noting that Moir did not say he was simply following his father's directions during Chelsey's murder — and attempting to cast doubt on Moir's defence that he was an unwilling observer to the events.



Moir, 24, and his father, Jesse West, are charged with first-degree murder in the 2005 death of the Abbotsford teen.



The prosecution is trying to prove the pair planned to kill Chelsey, with whom they had a sexual relationship, when they took her to a campsite along the Coquihalla River near Hope, strangled her, buried her body and covered it with rocks.



Moir and West were arrested in March 2007 after a complex "Mr. Big" investigation in which they both confessed involvement in the murder to a fake crime boss played by an undercover police officer.



As part of the arrest, they were placed in a transport van with a hidden microphone.



Moir said that with "bars and glass" between them, it was his chance to "vent" at West, denying the prosecution's suggestion that the conversation showed he was not afraid of his father.



In the tape, Moir is on the offensive. He engages his father in conversation, telling him it is good to see him. He then tries to convince his father to take more blame because he is young and has his "whole life ahead." He offers his father money, and then promises not to tell his mother about any agreements they might make.



Moir explained the offer to the jury Wednesday, saying, "he is still my dad. What he did, I know, it's wrong. I dislike him very much, but . . . he's my father."



But Hempstead wasn't buying it, referring to a phone call between Moir and his mother that was also taped by police.



In the call, a crying Moir tells his mother he should have stayed away from his dad, adding he "almost fainted" when he saw his father during the arrest.



"You're playing your parents off, one against the other," Hempstead accused. "I put it to you that you're someone who manipulates your parents."



"I don't know how you could say that," replied Moir, getting upset.



"And nothing's your fault, right Mr. Moir?"



"I didn't say that."



Outside court, Chelsey's mother, Lisa Acorn, said she was hopeful her daughter would receive justice.



"I just think the whole investigation team has done a wonderful job," she said, adding, "I'd like to thank everyone involved."



She said that five years after Chelsey disappeared, her loss "still feels like yesterday. It's still raw."





A long-haul trucker and his son were charged with the murder of 14-year-old runaway Chelsey Acorn, whose body was found in a shallow grave near Hope in the spring of 2009. This family photo shows Acorn at age 12 in Grade 7.



Feb. 11th 2010

CHILLIWACK — "I do what my dad tells me."



That statement Tuesday by accused killer Dustin Moir, taking the stand in his own defence in B.C. Supreme Court in Chilliwack, seemed to sum up his response to the first-degree-murder charge against him.



As the 24-year-old described for the jury the events leading to 14-year-old Chelsey Acorn's 2005 death, he told a different story from the one he had told a fake crime boss played by an undercover police officer prior to his March 2007 arrest.



In the meeting with the undercover officer, videotaped and played earlier in the trial, Moir said he accompanied his father and co-accused, Jesse West, to the Hope campsite, where Chelsey's body was ultimately found in April 2006, in order to carry out a "hit."



Moir told the officer they set up a tent, put Chelsey inside with a beer and dug a hole. West then began to strangle Chelsey, but Moir had to finish the job, he said. They placed her body in the hole, and Moir threw a large rock on her head, he said.



Chelsey's cause of death was later determined to be "blunt-force trauma to the head and face."



Under cross-examination Tuesday, Moir told a different story, portraying himself as someone who was scared of his trucker father and always followed his directions.



Chelsey entered the lives of Moir and West in 2005.



Shown three pictures of the girl, Moir squeezed his eyes shut momentarily before the prosecutor suggested that Moir met her in Mission while working at a coffee shop. Moir denied it, challenging the testimony of other witnesses who said the pair dated briefly.



The prosecution also suggested West eventually met Chelsey through Moir, but Moir again denied it, saying, "I don't know how he met her."



According to Moir, his father called him some time in 2005 — he couldn't remember the exact date, Moir said — to say he would pick his son up at a gas station in Surrey. When he arrived, Chelsey was in the car. Moir got in and the three hit the road. He did not ask where they were going — which "was very normal," he said.



They stopped at the Tim Hortons in Merritt and then headed back toward Hope. At that point, Moir said he asked his father where they were going. The answer was "camping," he said.



West left the highway at the Carolin Mines exit and in an open place along the Coquihalla River, they set up a tent. Chelsey was given a beer and bound with duct tape. Moir said his father then began massaging her neck. Eventually, he began to choke her. He asked his son to help put her in a hole.



Fearing his father, Moir got down on his knees and began to fill the hole with dirt, scraping rocks on top to cover the body.



West packed up the car and the two men returned to Hope, where they stopped at a Dumpster and threw away Chelsey's clothes.



Moir said he did not remember the location of the Dumpster.



"You had just witnessed a murder . . . and you don't remember?" asked the prosecutor.



"I was extremely shaken," Moir replied, later adding, "I was shaken and I was scared."



Moir said the pair went to West's basement suite in Surrey, where father directed son to shower and clean under his nails.



When asked why he did not go to the police, Moir said he was afraid his dad would "do something to me."



The prosecutor accused him of "overlooking the obvious . . . You'd be pointing the finger at yourself."



"I would have went [to the police] if it was only that reason," Moir said.



The trial continues.







RCMP inspector Wayne Rideout holds pictures of the accused:(L-R) Dustin Moir (22) and Jessie Blue West (54) during a press conference to announce the first degree murder charges laid in connection to the death of Chelsey Acorn.



Feb. 10th 2010

Sometimes I feel so alone, I just don't know, feels like I been down this road before