David Caissie loses appeal for murder conviction in ex-partner's death
CBC
WARNING: This story contains disturbing details.
A man sentenced to life in prison for the killing of his ex-partner had his appeal dismissed on Thursday.
In January 2019, David Caissie was convicted of first-degree murder of Carol King of Herschel, Sask., in August 2011. His life sentence came with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
The Crown's case was that Caissie admitted to killing her near Rosetown — about 110 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon — and disposing of her body after police ran a so-called Mr. Big sting on Caissie.
Stings of this nature include police posing as criminals and gaining the trust of a suspect.
Caissie filed a notice of appeal with Saskatchewan's highest court on Feb. 2, 2019. In the notice, Caissie said trial Judge Richard Danyliuk should not have allowed the Mr. Big sting evidence.
The appeal judges wrote that Caissie's convictions are based primarily on his multiple confessions that he killed King.
In his appeal, Caissie argued that the evidence garnered from the Mr. Big operation was presumptively inadmissible. He submitted that any admissions he made were either false or unreliable.
However, the appeal judges found that these arguments contained no merit.
According to court documents, King's body was found in August 2011 on an abandoned farmyard in the Herschel area.
Prior to the discovery, King's car was found in a slough. When police removed the car from slough, the driver and passenger side windows were rolled down. Court documents indicated that the keys were in the ignition in the "on" position and the gearshift was in the "drive" position.
Furthermore, a windshield washer wiper fluid "jug" was jammed between the brake pedal and the accelerator pedal, with the accelerator pedal down.
During the Mr. Big sting operation, Caissie confessed to the murder on multiple occasions.
In a second confession, Caissie told an undercover police officer that he went to King's house, grabbed her, tied her up and threw her in the back of her vehicle. He said he drove it to an abandoned farm, strangled her and got rid of the body.
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WARNING: This story contains disturbing details about gruesome deaths and sexual abuse.
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