LRT killer to challenge mandatory life sentence

A man convicted of beating a fellow LRT train passenger to death in 2012 is planning to challenge the constitutionality of Canada’s automatic life sentence for seconddegree murder.

Jeremy Newborn, 34, was scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for his conviction in the death of John Hollar.

Instead, a hearing was scheduled for December, when Newborn will make his Charter application.

Hollar, 29, died in hospital of blunt cranial trauma two days after the Dec. 28, 2012, attack by Newborn.

During a three-week jury trial in 2016, a city LRT driver and several passengers testified about watching Newborn pursue Hollar through a train car, repeatedly punching and kicking him, before stomping on him as he lay motionless.

Several people tried to intervene, court heard.

This is Newborn’s second constitutional argument: just before the trial was to begin, he challenged Alberta’s jury selection process on the basis that, as an indigenous man, he’s unable to have a representative jury because of rules that don’t allow people accused or convicted of crimes to serve as jurors, despite the province’s awareness that indigenous Canadians are overrepresented in the criminal justice system.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Brian Burrows said the under-representation of indigenous people on juries is “shameful,” but he rejected the application.

A jury convicted Newborn of second-degree murder in May 2016, despite his lawyer Simon Renouf ’s argument that his client’s mental capacity is clinically impaired to the point that he’s unable to form intent.

Crown prosecutor John Watson acknowledged Newborn suffers from a mild to moderate intellectual disability, but cited expert evidence that he would have had the capacity to know he could kill someone.

A second-degree murder conviction comes with an automatic life sentence in Canada. Only the number of years before parole eligibility is up for argument.

Renouf declined to comment Tuesday about on what grounds he will base his arguments.

Newborn is a patient at Alberta Hospital. On Tuesday, the court ordered he will remain there until his application is heard.