Public won’t pay for Cambridge killer’s appeal, court rules

Clark Sauve was convicted of murdering his wife of 40 years by shooting her twice in the head while she slept

KITCHENER — A Cambridge man convicted last year of murdering his wife of 40 years by shooting her twice in the head with an antique pistol wanted taxpayers to foot the bill for an appeal lawyer.

After being rejected by legal aid, Clark Sauve took his request for a free lawyer to the province’s highest court, the Ontario Court of Appeal. The court earlier this month ruled he has enough money to pay for a lawyer.

Sauve, 63, gets annual benefits from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and Canada Pension Plan totalling $16,440 — above the threshold for legal aid, Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Gary Trotter wrote in his ruling.

And Sauve apparently did not tell Legal Aid Ontario that he has $11,780 in the bank.

“It would appear that Mr. Sauve would rather retain his funds than retain counsel,” Trotter said.

Sauve has enough cash to fund his appeal, “especially when the bulk of the trial proceedings have already been transcribed and the voluminous appeal book prepared,” the judge said.

“Mr. Sauve has not established that it is in the interests of justice that he receive governmentfunded counsel.”

Before dawn on Dec. 29, 2014, Sauve, a gun collector and owner of a security alarm business, shot his wife, Linda, in the cheek and forehead while she slept in their Rouse Avenue home in Cambridge.

The prosecution suggested he had also planned to kill himself but didn’t when the antique gun jammed.

While Sauve claimed he called 911 a minute after he heard gunshots, records show he waited 23 minutes. He may have spent the time grinding serial numbers off the Mauser .32-calibre pistol, his trial was told.

After killing his 63-year-old wife, Sauve concocted a home invasion story.

Two women, both wearing Halloween masks, barged into his home, shot his wife in her bedroom and then pistolwhipped him in his bedroom, Sauve told police. He had no visible marks on him.

When police arrived, they found Clark Sauve and the gun in his bedroom.

“One of the officers asked Mr. Sauve, ‘You did this, didn’t you?’” Trotter said. “He did not respond.”

Gunshot residue was found on Sauve’s hands. His DNA was found on the murder weapon and on a shell casing in the gun.

Sauve was convicted of seconddegree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.