Jim Burton, 28, began driving a taxi seven months before his death while waiting for job openings for a truck driver. He previously worked in construction as a carpenter. Married for ten years, he had three sons aged nine, six and four years old. Early on May 21, 1991, he was dispatched in answer to a call that came in at 1:43 a.m. from a phone booth at at a small strip mall in the 2200 block of Dewdney Trunk Road, the main route through Maple Ridge. Mr. Burton radioed the dispatcher at 1:50 a.m. that he had picked up the fare. That was his last message. Mr. Burton's fares were two young men aged 19 years old. One of them got into the back seat and the other sat in front. Both men lived in a house in the 2100 block of Dewdney. Wanting a pizza but having no cash until the next unemployement insurance payment arrived, they walked to the strip mall and phoned a pizza parlour, intending to rob the delivery driver. The pizza never showed up, perhaps due to suspicions about calls from phone booths. The pair then decided to call a taxi and rob the driver. Soon after they left the strip mall, the man in the back seat grabbed Mr. Burton by the hair and held a buck knife to his throat, telling him to hand over his wallet. When Mr. Burton "panicked" and "jumped around," pleading for his life, the man began stabbing him. Meanwhile the man in the front seat beat him over the head with a wooden club. Mr. Burton was stabbed through the heart and the knife penetrated his skull. In all he suffered 54 wounds. The pair dumped Mr. Burton out of the car and drove away. A passerby found him about 2:15 a.m. and called police. He was rushed to hospital by ambulance but died of his injuries. Police quickly found the taxi behind the Westview Secondary School about six blocks from where Mr. Burton was dumped. The killers had left a trail of debris along the route, including a tennis shoe and the cab's radio. One of the men was arrested near the school and the other was arrested at home about 10 p.m. the same day. The man who stabbed Mr. Burton pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.The the man who clubbed him pleaded guilty to manslaughter. At the first man's sentencing hearing on September 17, 1992, court was told that one of Mr. Burton's young sons was found standing in the middle of the road in front of his home. He explained that he wanted to be hit by a car so that he could be with his father in heaven.

Maple Ridge, B.C. and Dewdney Trunk Road. (Source: Google Maps ). Crown Prosecutor Ron Caryer urged B.C. Supreme Court Justice Stuart Leggatt to impose more than the minimum 10-year delay before parole eligibility in order to send a "clear message" that the courts will severely punish violence against taxi drivers. Justice Leggatt acknowledged that the killer had no previoius criminal record, was from a good family and felt genuine remorse for killing Mr. Burton. The killer was an apprentice boiler-maker and had been a Scout leader. He had left his parents' home six months earlier to live on his own. However, Justice Leggatt said that the sentence needed to include an "element of denunciation for the crime." He sentenced the killer to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 18 years. The parole delay was reduced to 14 years by the B.C. Court of Appeal in January, 1994. The second man, who had clubbed Mr. Burton over the head, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. With credit for the two and a half years he had already spent in prison, he was eligible for parole in September, 1998. His appeal was turned down by the B.C. Court of Appeal in November, 1994. A fund-raising drive started by Mr. Burton's employer and co-workers raised more than $110,000 in support of his family. Mrs. Burton did not attend the sentencing hearings. She moved with her children to Ontario.