Top court restores murder conviction
Calgary man who killed teen with car will have to serve life sentence
— A second-degree murder conviction that was overturned against a Calgary man for running over two college students has been reinstated by the country’s highest court.
The Supreme Court of Canada said in its decision Friday the trial judge did not err in her instructions to the jury, which found Jeffery Leinen, 27, guilty.
The verdict was the first murder conviction in Canada in which a vehicle was used as a weapon.
Leinen was convicted of killing Nicholas Baier, 18, and seriously injuring Dan Skocdopole, 19, when he plowed into a crowd outside the Texas Mickey bar in Olds on Oct. 29, 2010. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years for killing Baier and 3-1/2 years concurrent for aggravated assault on Skocdopole. He also got a 15-year driving prohibition to start after his release.
The Alberta Court of Appeal, in a split 2-1 decision last year, overturned the murder conviction. The Crown appealed that ruling and it was argued Friday.
Calgary defence lawyer Jennifer Ruttan, who argued for Leinen with the assistance of Karen Molle in Ottawa for the new trial to go ahead, said the court did not give any reasons for their decision other than there were no errors in Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Marsha Erb’s jury charge.
“They didn’t agree with the majority from the Alberta Court of Appeal, but they didn’t necessarily agree with the dissenting judge either,” Ruttan said on Friday.
“They said the trial judge dealt with the issues that needed to be dealt with.”
Ruttan’s argument was that Leinen had a panic response when he drove his vehicle and he did not intend to kill or harm anyone.
However, the top court sided with Crown prosecutor Josh Hawkes, who argued there were no errors by the trial judge and that the appellate court’s decision should be overturned.
Erb said in sentencing Leinen his actions that night were “nothing short of a profound act of cowardice” and his lengthy record shows he is a “menace to the road.”
She noted he had 41 prior criminal convictions, including three for flight from police, five for obstructing peace officers, 13 for breaching court orders, as well as assault and impaired driving. He also had three Traffic Safety Act convictions for careless driving.
Leinen was transferred from prison to the Calgary Remand Centre after he won his appeal, then was denied bail in late January pending the Supreme Court decision. He will now go back to prison, said Ruttan.