Former B.C. Lion Boden charged with 2009 killing of ex-girlfriend
A former Canadian Football League player has been charged with murdering Kimberly Hallgarth, nearly a decade after the Burnaby woman and mother of one was murdered in her home.
Josh Boden, briefly a B.C. Lion, is due in court on Monday to face a charge of first-degree murder. Hallgarth was an ex-girlfriend of Boden when she was killed in March 2009.
Members of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team quickly labelled Hallgarth’s murder as targeted in 2009, but the case remained unsolved. Police at the time of the murder would not say whether Boden had been questioned. In an obituary posted in March 2009, Hallgarth’s family members recalled her as “a happy person and the proudest mother ever.”
“She would always smile never really letting you know when she was down, an absolute joy to have around.”
And her obituary had strong words for the person responsible for her murder.
“You deserve to be punished. While you run free, I hope you think about the little girl whose mother you took.”
Members of Hallgarth’s family could not be reached for comment. In the year before Hallgarth’s death, Boden was acquitted of theft, mischief and assault charges stemming from an alleged domestic dispute after Hallgarth wavered at the last minute on the witness stand.
The charges resulted in the B.C. Lions cutting ties with the receiver. Boden has since been in and out of the court system and jail for several serious criminal offences and allegations.
Boden was convicted in 2011 of two counts of sexual assault and one count each of obstruction of justice and assault on a police officer. An undercover officer watched Boden grope a woman who was walking toward the Commercial-Broadway station one evening that September. Boden fought with police when he was arrested. It took three officers, a civilian and a police dog to subdue Boden.
The North Vancouver man has also previously faced firearms charges, as well as charges for break-and-enter, uttering threats, obstruction possessing a controlled substance, procuring, living on the avails of prostitution, aiding a person to engage in prostitution, criminal harassment, and failure to comply with conditions of recognizance. He was also the subject of a rare public warning issued by Vancouver police, who believed he posed a safety risk to the community.
Boden played as a wide receiver for the Lions for one season. He played in the Canadian Junior Football League for the South Surrey Rams. Boden hadn’t completed high school at Carson Graham in North Vancouver by the time he had embarked on his career in football.
The Lions told him he had to follow strict behavioural guidelines or he would be gone. The team monitored his off-field conduct, and when the domestic dispute charges came to light, Lions boss Wally Buono released him.
After being cut from the Lions, then acquitted of charges related to the domestic dispute, Boden was picked up by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for a brief stint.