K. Slate

The accused was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and breaching a recognizance after a five-year-old child was found severely beaten in a wooded area.

The Crown's case relied entirely on circumstantial evidence, including the accused's motive stemming from a deteriorating relationship with the child's mother, his opportunity to commit the crime, pattern bruising on the child matching the accused's shoes, and the child's DNA found under the accused's fingernails.

The court applied the Villaroman test for circumstantial evidence and concluded that the only reasonable inference was that the accused committed the assault.

The accused was found guilty on all counts.

The accused was tried for two counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his wife and mother-in-law.

The Crown argued for constructive first-degree murder on the basis that the killings occurred during a forcible confinement.

The accused conceded he killed the victims but argued he lacked the requisite intent due to intoxication and denied forcible confinement.

The court rejected the intoxication defence, finding the accused had the intent to murder based on his actions, the extent of the injuries, and his post-offence conduct.

The court also found that the accused forcibly confined the victims by dragging them from an upstairs bedroom to the kitchen where the fatal wounds were inflicted.

The accused was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder.

During a trial for attempted murder and aggravated assault, a key Crown witness refused to be sworn and testify.

The Crown brought an application under section 715(1) of the Criminal Code to admit the witness's testimony from the preliminary inquiry.

The accused opposed the application, arguing he did not have a full opportunity to cross-examine the witness at the preliminary inquiry because he subsequently obtained new impeachment materials.

The court held that the accused had a full opportunity to cross-examine and that admitting the prior testimony would not occasion unfairness, provided the newly discovered impeachment materials were also admitted into evidence.

The Crown's application was granted subject to conditions.

During a joint trial for the murder of a child, the co-accused's counsel produced previously undisclosed photographs depicting the victim chained to a bed.

The applicant sought a severance of his trial, arguing the late disclosure undermined his cross-examination strategy and created fundamental unfairness.

The court dismissed the application, finding that the late production was a natural response to the applicant's cutthroat defence tactics and did not violate Crown disclosure obligations or create an injustice requiring separate trials.

The Crown brought a certiorari application seeking to quash a preliminary inquiry judge’s decision discharging the accused on first degree murder and committing them only on second degree murder following the death of a child.

The Crown argued the preliminary inquiry judge failed to consider the whole of the evidence when assessing whether there was some evidence of planned and deliberate murder or murder while committing forcible confinement under ss. 231(2) and 231(5) of the Criminal Code.

The Superior Court held that the preliminary inquiry judge had reviewed the relevant evidence and determined that the circumstantial evidence did not permit a reasonable inference of planning, deliberation, or forcible confinement forming part of the same transaction as the killing.

Errors relating to the sufficiency of the evidence, even if wrong, are within the preliminary inquiry judge’s jurisdiction and do not justify certiorari.

The court found no jurisdictional error.

The appellant appealed a conviction for refusing to provide a breath sample contrary to s. 254(5) of the Criminal Code.

The appeal alleged that the trial judge failed to address whether the accused was given a final opportunity to provide a breath sample, misapprehended evidence regarding the accused’s attempts to blow into the approved screening device, and misapplied the credibility analysis from R. v. W.(D.).

The summary conviction appeal court held that the trial judge made clear credibility findings, reasonably rejected the accused’s evidence, and properly placed the burden of proof on the Crown.

Applying the deferential standard owed to findings of fact and credibility, the court found no reversible error in the trial decision.

The conviction was upheld.