New trial ordered for Eaton Centre shooter
Posted Jul 21, 2017 01:07:24 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A man who was found guilty of second-degree murder in a daytime shooting at Toronto’s landmark Eaton Centre mall has been granted a new trial after a judge found the jury that convicted him was improperly selected.
An appeal court has overturned Christopher Husbands’ convictions, saying the trial judge made an irreparable mistake by overruling a defence request regarding the method of jury selection.
As a result, the three-member appeal panel says, the jury was improperly constituted and the verdict cannot stand.
Husbands was found guilty more than two years ago of two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Nixon Nirmalendran, 22, and Ahmed Hassan, 24.
He was also found guilty of five counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal negligence causing bodily harm in the June 2012 shooting that sent hordes of panicked shoppers running for the exits.
Husbands, whose lawyers had put forward a defence of not criminally responsible due to post-traumatic stress disorder, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 30 years.
He will now face a new trial on charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
