Pardy appeal denied
Man serving life sentence for killing Triffie Wadman in St. John’s in 2011
The Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador has dismissed an appeal by Trevor Pardy, who murdered his ex-girlfriend, Triffie Wadman, in 2011.
The Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador has dismissed an appeal by Trevor Pardy, who murdered his exgirlfriend, Triffie Wadman, in 2011.
Pardy, 40, and his lawyers had appealed his first-degree murder conviction, hoping to have it overturned on the grounds that the trial judge erred while giving his instructions to the jury.
Pardy claimed Wadman, 30, was fatally shot by accident during a struggle.
“In respect of this defence, consider all the evidence and whether or not the points raised by the defence point to an accident in a manner that is more than speculation or conjecture and whether it has an air of reality,” the trial judge told the jury at the time.
In their appeal, Pardy and his lawyers submitted that whether or not evidence had an “air of reality” was a question of law for the trial judge, not the jury.
A panel of three judges unanimously disagreed, saying they were satisfied the jury understood how Pardy’s defence was to be assessed.
“In summary, the instructions to the jury were adequate,” the panel wrote in their decision Aug. 4.
Pardy shot Wadman outside at Boggy Hall Place in the west end of St. John’s on Oct. 1, 2011. Wadman managed to use her cellphone to call 911, and police arrived to find Pardy holding a nine-millimetre pistol. He refused to drop the gun or move away from Wadman for more than 15 minutes, preventing paramedics from attending to her. He eventually moved behind a pickup truck and engaged police in a fourhour standoff.
The province’s chief forensic pathologist testified at Pardy’s trial, saying Wadman’s wounds weren’t immediately fatal and she bled to death.
In November 2015, a jury took less than two hours to find Pardy guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. After serving 15 years, he will be able to apply to have his parole time reduced.