Maureen Pecknold

On a pre-trial motion in a first degree murder prosecution, the applicant sought exclusion of proposed after-the-fact conduct evidence tendered by the Crown on the issue of identity.

The court applied the governing framework for admissibility of after-the-fact conduct evidence, focusing on relevance, materiality, and the balance between probative value and prejudicial effect.

Evidence that the accused did not return to his residence after the homicide and left belongings there, as well as evidence of the circumstances of his arrest, was held admissible.

Evidence of police efforts to locate the accused at unrelated locations before his arrest was excluded as irrelevant because there was no evidentiary foundation to infer he would be expected to be found there.

In a first degree murder prosecution arising from an alleged intimate partner homicide, the court determined multiple pre-trial evidentiary motions concerning ante mortem statements, hearsay, and prior discreditable conduct.

Applying the traditional state of mind exception and the principled hearsay approach, the court admitted the deceased's August 15, 2022 police statement in edited form, together with threatening August 14, 2022 text messages, because those items were highly probative of motive, animus, identity, and level of culpability.

The court excluded several other statements to co-workers, the father, and a lawyer where threshold reliability was not established or the probative value was tenuous and outweighed by prejudice.

The defence was permitted to introduce the deceased's August 15, 2022 texts to her sister and the accused as contextual evidence relevant to ultimate reliability.

In a first degree murder prosecution arising from an alleged intimate partner homicide, the court determined multiple pre-trial evidentiary motions concerning ante mortem statements, hearsay, and prior discreditable conduct.

Applying the traditional state of mind exception and the principled hearsay approach, the court admitted the deceased's August 15, 2022 police statement in edited form, together with threatening August 14, 2022 text messages, because those items were highly probative of motive, animus, identity, and level of culpability.

The court excluded several other statements to co-workers, the father, and a lawyer where threshold reliability was not established or the probative value was tenuous and outweighed by prejudice.

The defence was permitted to introduce the deceased's August 15, 2022 texts to her sister and the accused as contextual evidence relevant to ultimate reliability.