The appellant was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife.
At trial, the Crown introduced expert evidence from an FBI agent who testified that the crime scene had been 'staged' to look like a break-in, and offered opinions on the killer's motive and prior relationship with the victim.
On appeal, the Court of Appeal held that while expert evidence of crime scene reconstruction (the 'what') is admissible, the expert's opinions regarding the killer's motive and relationship to the victim constituted impermissible criminal profiling (the 'why' and 'who').
The Court found that the improper admission of this profiling evidence was highly prejudicial and could not be saved by the curative proviso.
The appeal was allowed and a new trial ordered.
