Woods’s former lawyer says client admitted to killing wife: affidavit
In a recently filed court document, the former lawyer for convicted murderer David Woods states the man admitted to killing his wife, Dorothy Woods.
“He advised me that he had killed his wife and had been waiting for the outcome for more than two years,” Michael Nolin wrote in an affidavit filed with the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.
Nolin recounted his history with the case, which officially began when he came on board with the file in October 2013. He states he was provided with a large amount of disclosure, but added the case was not what he considered complicated. While the Crown had provided what Nolin described as a “mountain of circumstantial evidence,” he was prepared to defend his client.
Nolin said he advised Woods before the trial he needed his client’s honesty if the two were to work together. “Mr. Woods had always told me that he was innocent and had not murdered his wife. That was the basis upon which I conducted my direct examination of him.”
Nolin added there were areas that “cried out for explanation” that Woods could not adequately provide, and that his client gave two irreconcilably different versions of events at trial, leading the defence lawyer to question whether he should remain on record. He did, and Woods was found guilty of first-degree murder. He subsequently received a life sentence.
The lawyer said he met with Woods after the verdict. He asked if his client had done it, to which Nolin said he received the admission.
“I was surprised that Mr. Woods admitted this to me but in light of all the evidence I was not surprised that, in fact, he admitted doing it, which was consistent with the evidence before the jury,” he wrote.
Nolin said he filed an appeal, but later withdrew after Woods’s mother filed a Law Society of Saskatchewan complaint for her son over the lawyer’s handling of the case.
Woods’s conviction appeal is set to be heard in a month. Woods’s current lawyer, James Streeton, could not be reached for comment.