Murder conviction quashed for N.S. man who spent almost 17 years in jail

Assoun was convicted by a jury of killing ex-girlfriend Brenda LeAnne Way, whose body was found in a Halifax-area parking lot on Nov. 12, 1995.

The case against him was based largely on the testimony of witnesses whose circumstantial evidence has since been questioned by lawyers who work to free the wrongfully convicted.

Kirk Makin, co-president of the Innocence Canada legal group, said Lametti’s decision represents the “next development in what we believe is an egregious wrongful conviction case.”

Assoun was released on bail in November 2014, based on a preliminary assessment that determined he may have been wrongfully convicted.

He was scheduled to be in court Friday with his lawyers Sean MacDonald and Philip Campbell to present arguments for his continued release, based on Lametti’s decision.

Assoun was found guilty of second-degree murder on Sept. 17, 1999. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of applying for parole for 18 years.

Court heard Way’s body was found with multiple stab wounds, her top had been pulled up and her throat was slashed.

Assoun was arrested and jailed in March 1998, despite having an alibi. He would remain in jail for almost 17 years.

That is six years longer than the 11 years that Donald Marshall Jr., a Mi’kmaq leader and Indigenous activist, served for his wrongful conviction for murder in 1971.

During Assoun’s trial, he fired his lawyer. Though he told the judge he felt he needed counsel, Assoun ended up defending himself in the complex proceedings — often struggling to cross examine witnesses and make his arguments that police had tunnel vision in his case.

Earlier this week, the father of four told The Canadian Press he’s always had hope he could show he is innocent of the crime.

However, he said his years in jail and then under bail conditions have robbed him of his health, damaged his family, and left him with recurring nightmares and mental illness.

“It was devastating to me. It affected my mind. It affected my overall health. I had several heart attacks in prison,” he said.

“It took my youth from me. All my younger years. Now I’m 63 and I’ll never get back my health and the freedom they took from me … Life passed me by.”

Assoun began fighting for his freedom while in jail, initially sending letters to American-Canadian boxer Rubin Carter — who was wrongfully convicted of murder and exonerated — and later having his case taken up by Innocence Canada lawyers.

They later applied to the federal Justice Department for a review, spending more than 12 years quietly battling for his release.

In 2014, a preliminary federal assessment found there may have been a miscarriage of justice, but the contents of that document remain subject to a court-ordered publication ban.

But some of the disputes over the validity of the prosecution have been in the public domain for years.

The case began at 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 12, 1995, when Way’s partially clad body was discovered behind an aging apartment block in Dartmouth’s north end. Court documents say she had been spotted earlier in the evening walking the streets and visiting a crack cocaine dealer.

At the time, Assoun was facing charges of assaulting Way. He was slated to appear in court about a month later.

Assoun’s 36-day trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court heard from Isabel Morse that Assoun was staying with her on the night of the murder.

She testified she saw him in her apartment at 5 a.m. and that he was there when she awoke in the early afternoon.

The Crown countered the alibi with testimony from Margaret Hartrick, a friend of Way’s, who gave statements to police in 1996 and 1998 and testified at a preliminary hearing that she saw Assoun at 4:15 a.m. on the night of the murder.

Hartrick also testified that Assoun told her Way was dead.

A prostitute and frequent crack cocaine user, Hartrick died before Assoun’s trial began.

However, her videotaped evidence and her testimony from the preliminary hearing was shown to the jury — without the opportunity for cross examination. There was evidence from other witnesses that raised questions about her timeline and location.

Testimony from several witnesses alleging Assoun had confessed to the crime has also been questioned.

Assoun’s nephew, Wayne Wise, who had a lengthy criminal record, testified that he asked Assoun during a telephone conversation if he had murdered Way. Assoun had replied “yes,” he said.

The trial judge, Suzanne Hood, reminded the jury there was evidence that Wise had used crack on the day he’d called Assoun in British Columbia from a pay telephone at the Dartmouth mall.

There was also testimony that Wise, who is described by the appeal court as a “career criminal and cocaine addict,” couldn’t recall the correct area code, and that “he requested favours in exchange for his testimony.”

Another Crown witness, David Carvery, described in court documents as a long-time criminal, claimed that Assoun had confessed to killing Way while the two men were cellmates in jail. Carvery gave his evidence in exchange for the Crown dropping one of his pending cocaine trafficking charges.

A third Crown witness, an 18-year-old prostitute, testified that she was cut and raped by a man who admitted to killing “Pitbull,” which the court heard was Way’s nickname. The woman said this was between March 1996 and November 1997, though she couldn’t provide an exact date.

She identified the man as Assoun, based on seeing his photo on a television newscast the day after he was arrested and brought back from British Columbia on April 8, 1998.

However, the woman’s account had to be weighed against evidence by Assoun’s sister-in-law that at the time of the alleged rape, Assoun was living in British Columbia, the original trial heard.

A fourth witness, Mary (Tina) Cameron, testified that within four weeks of Way’s murder, she heard Assoun tell Cathy Valade that he’d killed Brenda Way. Valade was a former girlfriend of Assoun’s.

In her summary to the jury, the trial judge noted that Valade couldn’t remember hearing the confession.

“In cross-examination, she (Valade) agreed that she had told the Crown in May of 1999 that … Cameron was lying but that she also asked to be put under hypnosis in case her memory was suppressed,” the judge wrote.

Assoun sought an appeal, but the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal dismissed his case on April 20, 2006.

However, the appeal court confirmed police were never able to find physical or forensic evidence for their homicide case.

A rusty knife with a broken blade tip was found near the scene more than a year after Way’s death, but the courts acknowledged that forensic experts couldn’t confirm the blood on it was Way’s — and there was no sign of Assoun’s DNA.

The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed Assoun’s application for leave to appeal on Sept. 14, 2006.

Assoun said he’s hoping additional facts about how police and prosecutors handled his case will soon be publicly revealed.

“I believe there should be a public inquiry,” he said.

— Follow (at)mtuttoncporg on Twitter.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Murder conviction quashed for N.S. man who spent almost 17 years in jail

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