Court rejects convicted killer’s appeal in 2012 fatal shooting of mother of four

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal of a man convicted in the fatal shooting of a Saskatoon mother who was the victim of mistaken identity.

Joshua Petrin has always maintained his innocence in the death of Lorry Ann Santos in September 2012.

He was found guilty in 2016 of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Petrin is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Santos, who was 34 and a mother of four, was fatally shot when she answered an early morning doorbell at her Saskatoon home.

Prosecutors argued at Petrin’s trial that he ordered a hit on a former member of the Alberta-based gang White Boy Posse, but the hit men went to an incorrect house.

Two other men were convicted and given life sentences.

“After reviewing the evidence relied on by the trial judge with respect to this offence, and indeed the evidence as a whole, I can find no flaw in the trial judge’s evaluation of the evidence or in her analysis that leads me to conclude her conclusion on the conspiracy to commit murder is unreasonable,” the three-member panel wrote in the decision that was released Tuesday.

“On the whole, the verdict of the trial judge was one that she could properly have rendered based on the evidence before her.”

The appeal court also dismissed Petrin’s application to present fresh evidence.

The panel wrote “some, if not all, of the proffered fresh evidence was actually known to counsel at trial.”

And, the written decision continued, “the new evidence could not reasonably be expected to have affected the verdict.”