Man convicted of killing Chad Davis appeals conviction, sentence

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This article was published 21/03/2014 (4572 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of two men convicted in the brutal killing of Chad Davis has started what’s expected to become a lengthy legal fight in hopes of getting a new trial.

Kristopher Brincheski, 31, is appealing both his conviction for first-degree murder and his sentence of life in prison without a chance of parole for 25 years.

Brincheski and co-accused Corey Tymchyshyn, 37, were found guilty Feb. 28 following a long and, at times, complex trial in which the Crown clearly convinced the jury the two men acted in concert to execute Davis, a city cocaine dealer, inside a garage at 703 Prince Rupert Ave on Feb. 6, 2008.

Each accused testified and blamed Davis’s killing on the other, but admitted helping to put his body in a plastic barrel and dump it in the Lee River near Lac Du Bonnet.

Davis was declared missing shortly after he mysteriously vanished and wasn’t found until a cottager fished the barrel out of the lake and opened it on July 23, 2008.

In a brief handwritten appeal form filed Friday, Brincheski alleges instructions from Justice Brenda Keyser to jurors during the trial were “unfair” and that the five men and five women who decided the case didn’t get all the information they needed to reach a just decision.

“All evidence (was) not presented to the court,” Brincheski wrote. He’s applied for Manitoba Legal Aid funding to assist with his appeal, the documents state.

Brincheski testified he was with his girlfriend at the time Tymchyshyn killed Davis, only to be approached by him to help cover up the crime.

He said Tymchyshyn planted evidence in the barrel in an attempt to tie him to the killing and also threatened him after the pair were arrested.

“He said I needed to make sure I followed his lead, that I did what he said, or else me and my family were dead,” Brincheski testified. On another occasion, Brincheski claims a large man with a gun confronted him in his driveway, telling him to keep his story straight or he’d be killed.

“And he said the next time he came back, it wouldn’t be a warning he was giving me,” Brincheski said.

RCMP searched Brincheski’s home in September 2008 and found thousands of dollars worth of Davis’s property inside, including personal items like a Tommy Hilfiger blanket, shoes and jewelry.

Tymchyshyn has yet to file an appeal, although one is widely expected. He testified Brincheski owed Davis $10,000 for a cocaine debt and had killed him in apparent self-defence when Davis attacked him in the garage for not paying up.

james.turner@freepress.mb.ca