First-degree conviction for Guenther
Killer faces automatic life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years
Shelley Jones was so certain the man who viciously strangled her daughter was guilty of first-degree murder, that she “refused to sign a subpoena, with the threat of arrest, to testify on a charge of seconddegree” against the killer.
The charge was eventually elevated from second- to first-degree murder in the death of Lacey Jones-McKnight, 20, and the insistent mother got her wish on Friday when her daughter’s one-time fiance Kristopher (Tray) Guenther was convicted as charged in the Oct. 25, 2012, slaying.
When asked if she got her justice, Jones teared up and struggled with the notion.
“My first thought was that this monster deprived so many lives, including his own,” she said outside court. “Lacey was a beautiful girl. She loved him, she stood by him, in fact saved his life at one point (from suicide).
“I’m going to say I’m ecstatic, extremely relieved, a huge burden has been lifted our shoulders today. There were tears of joy, relief and extreme gratitude to our team we call the Dream Team — two prosecutors and homicide Det. (Calum Cavilla).”
Court of Queen’s Justice Allan Macleod dismissed as “contrived” Guenther’s evidence of accidentally killing Lacey during a physical argument after he claimed they had rough sex involving bondage.
The judge believed the evidence that Guenther told shortly after the killing to his other girlfriend in a love triangle, Meghan Thibault, as being the most believable.
“He told Ms. Thibault he tied Lacey’s hands and feet, at one point put tape over her mouth and a bag over her head and strangled her lifeless,” Macleod said.
“As to confinement, there’s no question that binding the feet and hands together constitutes unlawful confinement.”
Guenther, as throughout the trial, displayed no emotions in the prisoner’s box as the judge read his hour-long decision. He faces automatic life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Chief Crown Lloyd Robertson, who prosecuted the case along with assistant Chief Crown Joe Mercier, told reporters outside court that the Criminal Code states if you confine a person in some way in order to effect the homicide, criminal law views that as especially abhorrent and becomes first-degree murder.
“It’s a tragic case of domestic violence. My heart goes out to the family and all the friends and people that knew Lacey,” Robertson said outside court. “The Calgary Police Service did a fantastic investigation. It was spectacular, it was detailed, thorough and entirely professional, and the case led in court was a direct result of that.”
Court heard Guenther strangled Lacey some time after she went over to Guenther’s home on Walden Ave. S.E. that afternoon to see his dog and its puppies.
He then phoned Thibault and went over to the bar where she worked, telling her he had killed Lacey after he bound her hands and feet, put tape over her mouth and a bag over her head and choked her a number of times before she succumbed.
Guenther then went to Shelley Jones’ home in Beddington Heights, handed her a knife and told her to kill him. When she re- fused, he took back the knife, told her he had killed Lacey and left. He then went to a bridge on County Hills Blvd. and tried to hang himself with a rope.
A passerby, who called 911, and the first police officer who arrived pulled him to safety. He was arrested after officers found the victim’s body in his car.
Shelley Jones said she knew from the start that Guenther’s bizarre story of sex was a lie.
“I knew it was ludicrous. None of it added up, ” she said. “No normal human being who accidentally murdered someone would stand and show no remorse.”
Macleod adjourned the case to April 10, to set a date for victim impact statements and sentencing arguments.