DLM
12-02-2004, 11:22 AM
Ontario court orders new trial for Baltovich 12 years after murder conviction
CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI
TORONTO (CP) - Ontario's highest court has ordered a new trial for Robert Baltovich, convicted on circumstantial evidence 12 years ago in the murder of his girlfriend.
In a unanimous decision, the Appeal Court found Thursday that errors committed by trial judge John O'Driscoll in his charge to the jury in 1992 warranted a new trial. "The charge to the jury was unfair and unbalanced," the tribunal said as it set aside Baltovich's conviction. "It also contained significant errors of law that were prejudicial to the appellant."
Baltovich, who was immediately granted $200,000 bail pending the retrial, appealed his March 1992 conviction for second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Bain. Baltovich was convicted despite the fact the 22-year-old's body was never found.
Baltovich's lawyers had argued at the appeal hearing that serial killer Paul Bernardo should have been considered a suspect in Bain's death. The appeal court appeared to agree.
"Various pieces of the circumstantial evidence connecting the killer with Ms. Bain and her vehicle were consistent with Bernardo but not with the appellant," the decision read.
At the time of Bain's disappearance, Bernardo was terrorizing Toronto's east end as the then-unidentified Scarborough rapist.
Crown lawyer Howard Leibovich ridiculed evidence used to link Bernardo to the Bain murder as speculative or unreliable. He said Bernardo had never previously abducted a victim in daylight nor used the victim's car in his crimes.
The Crown portrayed Baltovich as a jealous and obsessed boyfriend who murdered Bain when she tried to break off their relationship.
Bain was last seen on June 19, 1990, when she told her mother she was going to a University of Toronto campus. Her bloodstained car was found several days later.
Baltovich was convicted of the slaying two years later and was jailed for life without parole for 17 years. He was released on bail after nine years in prison, pending his appeal, but had to return to a Toronto jail Thursday morning until the decision was released.
The defence had pressed for an acquittal, arguing that a fair retrial would be impossible.
But Justices Michael Moldaver, Robert Sharpe and Eilleen Gillese ruled a new trial would give both sides an opportunity to deal with fresh evidence.
CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI
TORONTO (CP) - Ontario's highest court has ordered a new trial for Robert Baltovich, convicted on circumstantial evidence 12 years ago in the murder of his girlfriend.
In a unanimous decision, the Appeal Court found Thursday that errors committed by trial judge John O'Driscoll in his charge to the jury in 1992 warranted a new trial. "The charge to the jury was unfair and unbalanced," the tribunal said as it set aside Baltovich's conviction. "It also contained significant errors of law that were prejudicial to the appellant."
Baltovich, who was immediately granted $200,000 bail pending the retrial, appealed his March 1992 conviction for second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Bain. Baltovich was convicted despite the fact the 22-year-old's body was never found.
Baltovich's lawyers had argued at the appeal hearing that serial killer Paul Bernardo should have been considered a suspect in Bain's death. The appeal court appeared to agree.
"Various pieces of the circumstantial evidence connecting the killer with Ms. Bain and her vehicle were consistent with Bernardo but not with the appellant," the decision read.
At the time of Bain's disappearance, Bernardo was terrorizing Toronto's east end as the then-unidentified Scarborough rapist.
Crown lawyer Howard Leibovich ridiculed evidence used to link Bernardo to the Bain murder as speculative or unreliable. He said Bernardo had never previously abducted a victim in daylight nor used the victim's car in his crimes.
The Crown portrayed Baltovich as a jealous and obsessed boyfriend who murdered Bain when she tried to break off their relationship.
Bain was last seen on June 19, 1990, when she told her mother she was going to a University of Toronto campus. Her bloodstained car was found several days later.
Baltovich was convicted of the slaying two years later and was jailed for life without parole for 17 years. He was released on bail after nine years in prison, pending his appeal, but had to return to a Toronto jail Thursday morning until the decision was released.
The defence had pressed for an acquittal, arguing that a fair retrial would be impossible.
But Justices Michael Moldaver, Robert Sharpe and Eilleen Gillese ruled a new trial would give both sides an opportunity to deal with fresh evidence.