Leslie Douglas Greenwood gets new trial in double homicide
Posted Sep 8, 2014 06:20:28 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has overturned two first-degree murder convictions and ordered a new trial for a man found guilty in provincial court two years ago.
The decision regarding Leslie Douglas Greenwood’s 2012 jury trial considered whether the original trial judge gave sufficient cautions to the jury.
Greenwood was charged with the first-degree murder in the deaths of 48-year-old Barry Kirk Mersereau and 47-year-old Nancy Paula Christensen who police say were shot with handguns in their Hants County home in September 2000.
Following his trial in Kentville, N.S., Greenwood was given a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole for 25 years.
The Appeal Court decision released Monday says Greenwood claimed that he was at the house to collect drugs and didn’t take part in the shooting.
The decision says the jury had relied partly on evidence from the Crown’s key witness, Michael Lawrence, who said Greenwood had shot the two victims.
The three Appeal Court justices said the trial judge warned the jury that Lawrence – sentenced for his part in the murders in 2012 – was “the ultimate unsavoury character,” and had correctly advised them to look for other evidence.
However, the Appeal Court found an affidavit from Lawrence’s lawyer, Brian Bailey, was hearsay evidence and that the jury hadn’t had adequate warning of this fact.
The Court of Appeal also ruled the judge erred by not holding a voir dire or listening to the recorded statement of another witness before allowing it to be played for the jury.
