Manslaughter trial must go on, judge rules
There’s plenty of evidence — albeit some that’s pretty thin — upon which Rod Flavell could be found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the death of his wife, a judge ruled Friday in response to a defence application to have the case tossed.
Flavell, 64, is standing trial in BC Supreme Court in Penticton on a single count of manslaughter that alleges he killed Tina Seminara, 61, during an altercation at their Osoyoos home on April 8, 2020.
Seminara was found by police unconscious on her living room floor and taken to hospital.
She was declared dead nine days later after being taken off life support.
A pathologist concluded she suffered some kind of brain injury that caused swelling and cut off oxygen supply to her brain, but was unable to determine what caused it due to a lack of physical injuries.
Flavell turned himself in at the Osoyoos RCMP detachment on the night in question. He told officers his wife was in “bad shape” and that they’d had a “row,” but offered no other details about what happened. The officers found two knives and a piece of rope on the passenger seat of Flavell’s vehicle and noted Flavell had what appeared to be self-inflicted cuts on his wrist.
After listening to the Crown’s largely circumstantial case during the opening week of trial, Flavell’s lawyer on Thursday presented a rare no-evidence application seeking
to have Flavell acquitted due to a lack of hard evidence tying him to Seminara’s death.
That effort failed — but just barely.
“Frankly, I found this application to be a close call, but there is, as the jurisprudence characterizes it, a ‘scintilla’ of evidence that, in the context of the whole of the evidence, is reasonably capable of supporting the inferences sought by the Crown,” said Justice David Crossin in his reasons for decision.
“Again, whether a jury would conclude this evidence, along with all of the evidence, has the certainty required to establish the offence beyond a reasonable doubt is for the trier of fact to assess.”
Crossin then reviewed some of the evidence introduced by the Crown, including Flavell’s own admissions to police and neighbours that he had been involved
Tina Seminara
in some kind of altercation with Seminara and that Seminara needed help.
Flavell also admitted to throwing a glass vase at Seminara and told a friend he usually walked away from fights with Seminara, but didn’t on that night.
During her submissions on the no-evidence application, defence counsel Donna Turko sought to play down Flavell’s admissions, arguing a manslaughter conviction “can not rest upon the mere knowledge that the victim needed help.”
In reply, Crown counsel Andrew Vandersluys argued the evidence in its totality is capable of proving Flavell’s guilt, while Flavell’s own actions on the night in question are “consistent with somebody who is conscious of guilt.”
Turko is expected on Monday to begin presenting the defence’s case.
She hasn’t indicated yet if Flavell will take the stand in his own defence.