Nova Scotia man guilty of murder in case that used beyond-the-grave testimony
Posted Mar 21, 2016 08:49:43 AM.
Last Updated Mar 21, 2016 12:18:51 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SYDNEY, N.S. – A judge has found a Nova Scotia man guilty of murdering a 19-year-old woman in a case that turned partly on evidence from a dead witness.
Forty-one-year-old Thomas Ted Barrett was accused of strangling Brett Elizabeth MacKinnon, whose decayed remains were found in 2008 near a Glace Bay hiking trail, two years after she went missing. It is the first of two murder trials for Barrett involving young female victims.
On Monday, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Judge Robin Gogan said during her verdict that she accepted evidence from Crown witnesses who said Barrett had told them he’d killed MacKinnon with his bare hands.
The Crown case relied partly on Sheryl Ann Flynn’s videotaped account of Barrett telling her in 2006 that he felt “a rush” of adrenaline as his hands tightened on MacKinnon’s throat.
The defence had painted a picture of Flynn and other witnesses as drug addicts whose credibility was suspect. The prosecution had countered that Flynn’s memories were consistent with other witnesses who described Barrett saying he’d strangled MacKinnon or made a visible gesture indicating he’d strangled her.
Barrett is also charged in the second-degree murder of Laura Jessome in 2012, whose remains were discovered May 25 in a hockey bag floating on the Mira River.
