Accused found guilty of ex-girlfriend’s murder
A small smirk creased the face of Kevin Rubletz as a jury Thursday evening found him guilty of second-degree murder in the brutal stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend.
Relatives of Jessica Newman quietly wept in the courtroom gallery while Rubletz showed no signs of emotion as the jury forewoman read the verdict.
“Guilty,” juror No. 3 said, after the five men and six women deciding Rubletz’s fate reached a decision after eight hours of deliberation.
They accepted the theory of the Crown that Rubletz picked up Newman after she finished a shift at the southeast Calgary bar where she worked, drove her to a secluded rural area north of the city and stabbed her at least 75 times.
In what prosecutor Shane Parker called a “crime of passion,” the Crown theorized the on-again, offagain couple had gone to the area of Balzac northeast of the CrossIron Mills mall for the purpose of having sex, before something set Rubletz off.
Jurors were given final legal instructions on the law from Justice Glen Poelman on Thursday morning before beginning deliberations in the case.
Shane Parker, in his closing address to jurors on Wednesday, said Newman’s “footprints of life,” her day-to-day activities both online and in the public, ended that night.
Parker told jurors Rubletz made the mistake of revealing he’d gone to Balzac that night when he was questioned four days later after Newman, 24, was reported missing.
The woman’s badly decomposed and partially naked body was found northeast of the CrossIron Mills mall in Balzac on May 4, 2015.
Parker, in arguing for a conviction, said Rubletz had to reveal he’d gone to the Balzac area the night of March 10, 2015, after police raised the possibility CCTV and cellphone records could track his movements.
Jurors rejected defence lawyer Brendan Miller’s submission there were signs Newman was alive after March 10, including from a defence witness who believed he saw her on a Forest Lawn street corner the next night.