Conviction wrongful: grim killer

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This article was published 22/05/2010 (5639 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A killer who once referred to his dismembered victim as a “human trophy” claims he’s been wrongfully convicted of one of Winnipeg’s most infamous crimes.

Sydney Teerhuis appeared before the Manitoba Court of Appeal Friday, arguing his second-degree murder conviction should be overturned. His lawyer, Greg Brodsky, cited more than a dozen legal grounds to argue for a conviction on the lesser charge of manslaughter.

They include the judge’s instructions to the jury, the lack of a motive and Teerhuis’ apparent intoxication at the time of the July 2003 slaying inside a Winnipeg hotel. Teerhuis claims he blacked out and has no memory of the attack, in which Robin Green was stabbed, beheaded, castrated, disemboweled and cut into eight pieces inside suite 309 of the Royal Albert Arms Hotel just hours after they randomly met inside a bar.

Brodsky also criticized the judge for allowing jurors to be shown photos of the crime scene, saying they only “inflamed the passions” of the panel.

If he loses his conviction appeal, Teerhuis is arguing his sentence was “harsh and excessive” and should be reduced. Queen’s Bench Justice Glenn Joyal took the highly unusual step of giving Teerhuis the maximum penalty allowed by law — life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. The mandatory minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life behind bars with no parole eligibility for 10 years, but judges have the discretion to raise it. Joyal said the horrific details of the random murder warranted such a major increase.

The Crown argued Friday no mistakes were made and both the conviction and sentence should stand. The Court of Appeal has reserved its verdict and will give written reasons at a later date. A conviction for manslaughter carries no mandatory life sentence and would give Teerhuis a much quicker shot at returning to society.

Teerhuis appeared frail Friday, having apparently gone through a bout of flesh-eating disease, court heard. He arrived in a wheelchair with a brace around his left leg and had to be assisted by sheriff’s officers. Teerhuis has been serving his sentence in Saskatchewan but was brought to Manitoba for the hearing.

Brodsky argued at trial Teerhuis was suffering from “disorganized thinking and impaired judgment” at the time and couldn’t have formed the intent needed to prove murder. The Crown called Teerhuis the personification of “evil” who was trying to play a sadistic joke on the justice system. Prosecutor Sheila Leinburd said it’s impossible for a person to be so intoxicated they wouldn’t remember stabbing a man 68 times and cutting up his body with “surgical-like precision” over several hours, eventually disposing of his organs.

Leinburd also cited the fact Teerhuis wrote a series of chilling letters to a Winnipeg man boasting about the slaying, with graphic details and drawings. Teerhuis testified what he wrote was fiction meant to sensationalize his story to help get a book deal.

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