BATTLEFORD, Sask. – A judge has heard closing arguments in the trial of a 19-year-old man accused of killing a Saskatchewan couple while he was drinking with another youth. The Crown wants the accused, who was 17 at the time of Genne and Teresa Nolin’s deaths, to be found guilty of first-degree murder.
The Nolins were found dead in their Rapid View home in October 2012. The Nolins were well known in the community for their involvement in chuckwagon racing and their work with foster children.
Prosecutor Bill Burge has argued that the young man on trial was aware of the decisions that he and a younger accomplice made.
But defence lawyer George Combe has suggested that the judge should consider evidence of the accused’s intoxication that night. Combe says alcohol would have affected his client’s ability to deliberately plan to kill the Nolins.
The judge is to hand down a verdict April 13.
READ MORE: Accused accomplice says booze fueled plot to kill Rapid View couple
The alleged accomplice testified during the trial in a Battleford, Sask., courtroom that it was the older youth who hatched a plan to kill the Nolins while the teens were drinking beer. The witness, who is now 16 but was 14 when the Nolins died, also testified that he didn’t want to murder the two, but felt influenced by the older boy.
He said the same decisions probably would not have been made had he not been drinking.
A video of a police interview with the elder accused was also shown during the trial. It shows the accused telling an RCMP officer that the motive for the slayings was to get money for drugs. He told the officer that he and another teen first planned to use knives, but ended up shooting the Nolins.
He also explained how he fired the first shot at Genne Nolin, while the second teen shot the man’s wife and then fired again at Genne. He also told the officer it was his accomplice who decided which person each of them would kill.
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