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On December 7th, 2006 a jury found Michael White guilty of second-degree murder.

His lawyer, Laura Stevens, said what really hurt her client was the videotape of a large, bald man jogging by a tavern in the middle of night ... after a man drove by in a vehicle the Crown claimed was Liana's Ford Explorer.

Stevens also said it didn't help that Michael White retrieved bloody rags from a field.

Not only did Stevens defend White in the murder trial, she believed he didn't do it.

The lawyer had travelled to the Remand Centre in Red Deer where she went after White hard. She returned to her law office, telling her boss (Larry Anderson) she didn't think he did it.

While White was in Red Deer waiting to go to trial, he got a visit from an Edmonton criminal lawyer he called the "White Fox" (aka Arnold Piragoff).

Piragoff was there on behalf of Anderson's law firm – call him a freelancer if you will – and he had an offer from the Crown: manslaughter.

White says the "White Fox" told him he knew his business and advised him to accept the manslaughter offer ... and "He'd be out in no time."

Piragoff was himself a former Crown prosecutor.

White turned the offer down. He says he couldn't accept it because he didn't kill his wife.

The same evening the jury found Michael White guilty I was in the west end, turning off 118th Avenue to go south on 170th Street, when my cell rang. It was White. I asked him how he was doing.

"I've had better days," he said.

I wanted his reaction to the murder conviction.

White called it a "big disappointment." But he said he wasn't surprised given the way the trial had gone and that the jury didn't get to hear some key evidence.

Turns out, White's mother (who found Liana's body) was not called as a witness.

Carol Forbes said if she had been called to testify and had been shown police photos of Liana's body in the ditch – covered with branches – she would have told the jury that's not how she left Liana.

In spite of the outcome, Michael White praised his lawyers for their help.

He also revealed that not long after the jury foreman said "guilty," one of his lawyers, Robert Shaigec, broke down and wept in the holding cells behind the courtroom.

White went on to say that he still loved his wife and that a part of him died when she died.

I called the Edmonton Sun and offered them White's reaction. A reporter said that the last part wouldn't be used because they didn't like what White said.

White predicted that Justice Mary Moreau would tell him he'd have to wait seventeen years before getting a shot at parole.

Before he hung up White said, "Byron, if I can give you some advice: 'Live life to the fullest.' "

White had gone from being a family man with a wife, a kid and another on the way ... to a convicted wife-killer and the father of a girl he may never see again.

After the verdict, I dropped around to White's house to speak with Larry and Carol Forbes.

They were in no-talking mood.

The couple was busy packing their son's personal belongings for the long drive back to Ontario.

An agitated Carol Forbes was stuffing military memorabilia into a plastic garbage bag when the doorbell rang.

She answered the door, expecting to see a reporter.

Fred and Bernadette Karas stood there. They had driven out from Lacorey to give their support.

All four began to cry.

That's when I decided I had seen enough.

I shook hands and drove home.

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deadmonton - michael white - the untold story - 33