Bondage wasn’t part of murder, lawyer says

Convicted killer Kristopher Guenther’s kinky sex defence should have resulted in a conviction for seconddegree murder, not first-degree, his lawyer argued Wednesday.

Defence counsel Kim Ross said Justice Allan Macleod erred when he ruled Guenther confined Lacey Jones-McKnight before strangling her, resulting in the first-degree murder conviction.

Ross said that, if Jones-McKnight was confined at any time, it was during consensual sex earlier in the day, when he bound her with tape and rope.

“When this incident occurred, there was in fact no confinement,” Ross said of the killing.

The lawyer said there were no bruises or marks on Jones-McKnight that would indicate she struggled against Guenther binding her with industrial strength Tuck Tape.

But Crown prosecutor Dave Labrenz argued the three-member Alberta Court of Appeal should accept Macleod’s findings of fact and uphold Guenther’s first-degree murder conviction.

In finding Guenther guilty, the Court of Queen’s Bench judge rejected his testimony he accidentally killed Jones-McKnight on Oct. 25, 2012, at his Walden home in southeast Calgary.

Macleod said Guenther “tiptoed through a minefield of evidence that had been laid by the Crown.”

He called the killer’s testimony contrived.

The deceased and Guenther had been engaged, but had broken up before she went to his home that day to see his new puppies.

Macleod accepted testimony from Guenther’s then-girlfriend, Megan Thibault, who said he admitted in a phone call to tying up the victim before killing her.

Guenther was sentenced to life without parole for a minimum of 25 years. With a second-degree murder conviction, parole eligibility can be as low as 10 years.

The appeal judges reserved their decision.