Michael MacKay being taken away following court Monday. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Homicide investigation

MacKay sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty in wife’s poisoning death

Nov 20, 2023 | 3:16 PM

A man who was facing charges in the death of his wife Cindy MacKay was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Court of King’s Bench today.

Michael MacKay, 41, was charged first degree murder in the death of his wife Cindy MacKay of the Meota area. He instead pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second degree murder in the case.

Justice M.L. Dovell accepted the joint submission from the Crown and defence recommending life imprisonment with no chance of parole for at least 10 years. MacKay was also ordered to provide a DNA sample and received a firearms prohibition.

Cindy MacKay, 38, was transported to hospital in medical distress Feb. 7, 2020. She later died in hospital on Feb. 12, 2020. Her cause of death was found to be strychnine poisoning.

According to the agreed statement of facts read in court by Crown prosecutor Oryn Holm, on the morning of Feb. 7, 2020 at their family farm near Meota, Michael MacKay gave Cindy a drink containing the toxic pesticide strychnine, in an amount he knew would be lethal.

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Shortly after consuming the drink, she went into medical distress. MacKay called 911 and told operators Cindy was not feeling well and requested assistance. One of their three young daughters was in the home at the time.

When the ambulance arrived, Cindy was taken to the Battlefords Union Hospital. She was later transferred to Royal University Hospital (RUH) in Saskatoon. After her condition continued to deteriorate, on Feb. 12, 2020 Cindy was removed from life support and died shortly after.

On Feb. 10, 2020, while Cindy was still alive, hospital staff at RUH contacted the RCMP as they considered the case suspicious.

During the investigation, in two statements to the police MacKay denied giving Cindy strychnine, and he speculated it was instead perhaps a suicide on her part.

In the court statement of facts, it said Michael MacKay was having a casual affair.

It also noted that on Feb. 6, 2020, a day before he poisoned his wife, he texted the woman he was involved with, saying: “Goodbye will likely be in the next few days.”

When she addressed the court, the judge said: “This is the most tragic of cases.”

Following court, Cindy MacKay’s family spoke about finding justice after Cindy’s death.

Holm told reporters there was a lack of direct evidence in the case.

“It was a truly circumstantial case,” he said. “It’s one where sometimes we will have people who see things or can tell us things that are more literally direct. This one was purely circumstantial. No one had seen him do the action. He had never confided in anyone he had done the action. There was nothing in his devices that there was any type of plan. It was a truly circumstantial case.”

Holm said there were a series of circumstances that were suspicious, and when added together “that gave us the Crown theory that led to charges.”

He noted when there is circumstantial evidence it can make a trial very risky.

Holm went on to say it is quite uncommon to see cases of poisoning by strychnine.

“In my career, I’ve been a prosecutor for almost 10 years now, and I’ve never seen it,” he said. “Strychnine poisoning is extremely rare. If the trial had run we would have heard some evidence from the toxicologist. While these things do happen, you are talking one or two a year. So the fact that that was the poison used in this case does make it extremely rare.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW