Waterloo killer’s appeal in Bourdeau death dismissed
KITCHENER — David Thomas, the Waterloo man convicted of murdering his girlfriend Denise Bourdeau, won’t be getting out of prison any time soon.
The Ontario Court of Appeal on Thursday dismissed appeals of his conviction for second-degree murder and a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 16 years.
“I think that’s fantastic,” Amy Miller, Bourdeau’s mother, said in an interview. “I’m very relieved.”
In 2015, Thomas, now 56, was convicted of killing Bourdeau, 39, his on-again, offagain girlfriend. She had been in an abusive relationship with Thomas for two years before she disappeared on Jan. 1, 2007. More than three months later, her body was found on a flood plain of the Grand River in south Kitchener. The cause of death was not determined.
Thomas wasn't charged with Bourdeau's murder until July 2011 — more than four years after her body was found.
“The Crown’s theory was that (Thomas) had found (Bourdeau) at a bar with another man on New Year’s Eve,” Justice Ian Nordheimer wrote in a 30-page ruling by a three-judge Appeal Court panel.
“Motivated by hostility, anger, jealousy and feelings of betrayal, he killed her and then drove her body in his car and dumped it in the river.”
The case against Thomas was entirely circumstantial. Prosecutors pointed to previous violence.
An attack by Thomas in 2005 put Bourdeau in hospital after she was choked into unconsciousness and her nose was broken while Thomas yelled he wanted her dead.
His grounds for appeal included the admissibility of two statements he made, alleged impropriety of the Crown’s closing address and alleged errors in Justice David Broad’s charge to the jury.
The Appeal Court rejected all of Thomas’s submissions, including an allegation that the guilty verdict was unreasonable.
“In my view, there is no question that a finding of guilt was a verdict that was open to the jury to reach on the evidence that was placed before them,” Nordheimer wrote.
He saw no merit in the sentence appeal. “The trial judge gave careful reasons for his conclusion regarding the period of parole ineligibility,” he wrote. “It was within the range established by earlier authorities and, I note, was less than 10 of the 12 jurors recommended.
“I am satisfied that the period of parole ineligibility fixed by the trial judge is proportionate to the gravity of the appellant’s offence and his degree of responsibility for having committed it.”
Ann Josling, a longtime friend and neighbour of Thomas, said in an interview she spoke to Thomas on the phone just hours before the ruling was released.
“He was all excited and he was sure that he was going to be freed,” she said. “I’m devastated. I thought it was going to be a slam-dunk verdict for Dave.”
Thomas told her that if he strikes out at the Appeal Court, he will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. “He’s not giving up by any means.” Miller said she doubts the Supreme Court will hear his case.
In a jailhouse interview in June, Thomas professed his innocence.
“I lost my life because of this crap.” Miller said: “He says his life was taken away from him. Well, what about Denise’s life? I think of her every day.”
Bourdeau was the mother of three children.
“Now she’s got a new grandson and she can’t interact with him,” Miller said. “But I know she’s watching over him.”