Alberta’s top court has ordered a second trial for a man acquitted in the brutal sex slaying of a 13-year-old girl lured from the West Edmonton Mall.
The Alberta Court of Appeal has allowed the Crown to appeal the decision made in which Michael Briscoe, 37, was found not guilty of first-degree-murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault in the April 2005 death of Nina Courtepatte.
Justice Brian Bellows convicted Joseph Laboucan in the case, but ruled that Briscoe — who had driven a group from the mall to the golf course — was not guilty. Three youths were also convicted.
Briscoe’s lawyer had argued that Briscoe never followed the group into the course, where Courtepatte was raped and killed.
“The Crown has established that the trial judge erred in failing to consider whether (Briscoe) was willfully blind to the harm his cohorts intended to cause the victim,” the three-judge panel wrote in a decision. “But for this error, the verdicts may well have been different.”
Courtepatte’s mother said she welcomes the decision and “hopes justice will prevail.”
“I am ecstatic by the decision,” Peacha Atkinson told Metro. “This gives us more closure in knowing that he is going to come back to court, and he’s not going to get away with it … justice will be served in the end.”
