Closing arguments in Mark Grant trial begin today

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/05/2017 (3118 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After three decades, a jury trial, a Supreme Court appeal, an overturned verdict and a brand-new trial, the second-degree murder case for Candace Derksen’s accused killer is set to come to a close this week.

Crown and defence lawyers are scheduled to make their final arguments today in the retrial for 53-year-old Mark Grant, who is charged in the 1985 death of 13-year-old Candace, who was found bound with twine and frozen to death in a shed nearly two months after she went missing on her way home from school.

After a lengthy trial that relied heavily on DNA analysis, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Karen Simonsen decided all of the challenged evidence that was introduced would be admissible, meaning she’ll have to decide how much weight to give each piece of evidence before she reaches a verdict.

The retrial was called after the Manitoba Court of Appeal, and later the Supreme Court of Canada, overturned Grant’s 2011 second-degree murder conviction. The high court decided the trial judge erred by not allowing the jury to hear evidence that could have pointed to another suspect.

During this trial, which began in January, the defence introduced evidence about a second kidnapping victim who had been reportedly abducted when she was 12 years old. The alleged victim was found four months earlier tied up in a rail boxcar in the same area where Candace’s body and was reported to have happened while Grant was in custody. The Crown has argued the victim, now an adult woman who testified during the retrial, is not believable.

The judge has also asked the lawyers to provide written arguments to guide the court through highly technical, DNA-focused testimony. Simonsen previously rejected a defence request to drop the case based on an allegation that his charter rights had been violated.

DNA analysis of the twine that bound Candace’s hands and feet linked Grant to the cold-case homicide. But Grant’s defence team has challenged the original DNA evidence. It argued Grant was not able to fully defend himself against the second-degree murder accusation because all of the twine extract used for DNA testing was used up by the lab during the 2007 investigation and couldn’t be independently tested by defence experts.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay