Alberta Appeal Court upholds conviction of man who killed girlfriend

CALGARY An Edmonton man who admitted he killed his girlfriend because he believed she was part of a group of supernatural serial killers has lost an appeal of his conviction.

Mark Lindsay was convicted in May 2016 of seconddegree murder and obstruction of justice.

He did not deny killing 31year-old Dana Turner in August 2011 and then dumping her body, which was found two months later in central Alberta.

His lawyer argued at Lindsay’s trial that he should not be held criminally responsible because he had schizophrenia.

Forensic psychiatrists testified both in favour and against that assessment before the judge ruled that Lindsay knew his actions were morally wrong.

The Alberta Court of Appeal rejected Lindsay’s argument that the judge erred in his assessment of expert opinions and that there was enough evidence to support a ruling of not criminally responsible.

“We do not find that the trial judge committed any error in his application of the relevant legal principles in weighing the expert evidence,” the Appeal Court wrote in its decision.

“His findings were available and reasonable on the evidentiary record before him.”

Lindsay, the son of former Edmonton police chief John Lindsay, said he stabbed Turner in the eye with a pencil before strangling her with a shoelace.

The Crown argued at the trial in Red Deer that there was nothing to indicate Lindsay showed any fear of Turner in the days leading up to her murder.

His lawyer had argued that Lindsay suffered a decade of escalating mental illness before the crime.

Queen’s Bench Justice Eldon Simpson sentenced Lindsay to 16 years in prison before being eligible for parole.