Alleged accessory makes bail; Woman charged in connection to cabbie's murder

From the Whig-Standard Website:

By Sue Yanagisawa

A Kingston woman charged last month with being an accessory after the fact to the brutal killing in June of veteran taxi driver David Krick has been released from custody to await her trial.

Laura Jean Clow, 39, was given bail without a hearing yesterday by Superior Court Justice Cheryl Robertson. The decision followed a short pretrial discussion in the judge's chambers with assistant Crown attorney Ross Drummond and Clow's lawyer, Mike Mandelcorn.

Drummond consented to Clow being released with one surety, a female friend who has agreed to guarantee that Clow abides by all of her conditions. The court also required a $5,000 bond as a hedge against her compliance, but without any cash being deposited with the court. Under the conditions of her bail, Clow must: continue to live at her Carruthers Avenue apartment; report weekly to Det.-Sgt. Bill Kennedy, who's in charge of the homicide case; and maintain daily contact with her surety, either in person or by telephone.

She's barred from having any weapons and forbidden from communicating with anyone in the slain cab driver's family or with the man accused of killing Krick, 31-year-old Richard Edmund Smith, or with members of his family - with one exception.

Clow has been in custody since her arrest Oct. 9 and has previously been identified by police as Smith's common-law wife.

Police have said she has no criminal record.

Smith, conversely, is a violent federal parolee, originally from Hamilton, who was sent to Kingston following convictions in 2003 for sexual assault with a weapon, forcible confinement, robbery and other charges. He was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison at the time. He was paroled in May 2005, had his parole suspended briefly the same year, then put back on the street.

He was free on June 17, when Krick was stabbed to death. Police believe the attacker was a passenger the 50-year-old cabbie picked up around 6:30 a.m. on Wright Crescent.

Kingston Police also believe Krick's killer robbed him of a small amount of cash before abandoning him, bleeding, on the sidewalk of Durham Street, and stealing his cab.

The taxi was tracked with a Global Positioning System and determined to have taken a meandering route after Krick was stabbed, ending up at an apartment complex on MacPherson Avenue, about three blocks from Clow's apartment.

The killer abandoned the cab at the apartment complex and fled, eluding police.

Smith's parole was suspended again and he was returned to prison in August to complete his original sentence. His warrant of committal is due to expire on the Milton charges at the end of this month.

He wasn't charged with Krick's murder until mid-October, several days after Clow's arrest, and he remains in Collins Bay Penitentiary.

suey@thewhig.com