Lambton County man convicted of killing wife gets bail pending appeal
TORONTO A man convicted of killing his wife at a second trial has been granted bail while he appeals.
While releasing someone convicted of such a serious crime is unusual, Ontario’s top court said Roger Short deserves his freedom for now.
“Judicial interim release pending appeal for a person convicted of murder is rare,” Justice James MacPherson wrote in his bail decision. “However, in my view, this is a rare murder case in which, at this juncture, the interests of reviewability outweigh the interests of enforcement.”
Barbara Short, 48, of Mooretown, Ont., in Lambton County was found dead behind her upscale home in the early hours of Oct. 19, 2008. Her husband was arrested within days.
The couple were high school sweethearts and had two daughters, but court records show their 28-year marriage was under severe strain and she was taking steps to leave him at the time of her death. Three years later, police were still appealing for information related to the killing.
Short, now 56, was convicted in Sarnia in February 2013 of killing his wife, a child care operator. His first trial ended in a hung jury.
Following his subsequent conviction, he first asked for bail pending appeal in 2014. The Appeal Court refused on the basis that it was not in the public interest given the seriousness of the crime for which he had been convicted. Short then applied for bail a second time.
The prosecution again opposed bail, saying that while Short has grounds to contest his conviction, they aren’t strong enough to overturn the jury’s guilty verdict.
Short, however, argues he deserves to be let out given that he has new evidence and the length of time he has already been behind bars.
In accepting his arguments, MacPherson noted that the judge who presided over Short’s trial refused to allow his lawyer to remove himself from the case five weeks before the hearing was to begin. The lawyer had said Short had stopped paying him and he could not ethically represent him.
This, the Appeal Court ruled, presents a serious issue. Additionally, MacPherson said, Short now has extensive new evidence about the possibility someone else killed his wife — a possibility barely explored at trial.