Crown seeking new trial in unique case

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This article was published 17/09/2011 (5107 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba justice officials are seeking a new trial against a Winnipeg man cleared of any wrongdoing in the death of a former minister he robbed and abandoned in a sunflower field north of the city.

Jurors took just a few hours to find Shaun Nodrick not guilty of second-degree murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter during a high-profile trial last winter.

The case returned to court on Friday for a hearing before the Manitoba Court of Appeal. Crown attorney Ami Kotler argued the trial judge made several errors in her instructions to the jury on the evidence. They include whether Nodrick’s post-offence conduct could be considered part of his alleged offence and indicative of a “guilty state of mind.”

Nodrick’s lawyer, Mark Wasyliw, argued no mistakes were made and the acquittal should stand. The appeal court reserved its decision following a half-day of legal arguments.

The six-man, six-woman jury heard several weeks of testimony in the case of Harold Mahatoo and were left to wrestle with a unique legal question: Was it possible to murder someone without actually killing them?

Unlike most homicide victims, Mahatoo wasn’t shot, stabbed or beaten. An autopsy revealed the 65-year-old former Presbyterian minister died in July 2003 from exposure and complications from diabetes. His nearly naked body was found on a strip of farmland eight days after he was abandoned there. Doctors can’t say exactly when he died.

Nodrick, 33, began his trial on a first-degree murder charge, but Queen’s Bench Justice Brenda Keyser tossed that charge, saying it wasn’t supported by any evidence of forcible confinement. Jurors were given the option of still finding him culpable for homicide.

Nodrick didn’t deny driving Mahatoo to an isolated field near the Bel Acres Golf and Country Club, removing Mahatoo’s shoes, shirt and pants and leaving him to fend for himself after stealing his car and bank card. He claimed Mahatoo had made sexual advances to him and told investigators he stripped him of his clothing and left him in the field in an attempt to “humiliate” him.

But Nodrick said he never planned to kill Mahatoo, who he met while both men were staying in the chemical-withdrawal unit at the Health Sciences Centre in the spring of 2003.

“This was a tragic accident. Nobody could foresee this,” Wasyliw told jurors in his closing argument. “Leaving him on that farm site didn’t cause his death. It was Mr. Mahatoo not leaving the site that became fatal. It’s a decision (Nodrick) had no part in.”

Crown attorney Brian Wilford urged jurors to find Nodrick guilty as charged, saying he was well aware Mahatoo was suffering from a variety of health ailments, which would have made it difficult to find his way out of the field.

www.mikeoncrime.com