Canadian convicted of killing wife wins new trial in N. Carolina

RALEIGH, N.C. – A former Calgary man, convicted of strangling his estranged wife in 2008, has won a new trial in North Carolina.

Media reports say an appeals court made the decision on Tuesday after hearing arguments on whether Bradley Cooper’s defence lawyers were thwarted from presenting their best case.

Cooper was convicted in 2011 of first-degree murder in the killing of his 34-year-old wife Nancy, whose body was found at a construction site five kilometres from their home.

Her husband claimed she went out for a jog on July 12, 2008 and never returned.

Prosecutors said Cooper had killed his wife because he was angry she planned to divorce him and move to Canada with their two daughters.

Cooper, 39, has repeatedly insisted that he had no part in his wife’s death. The Canadian citizens had moved to Cary, N.C. from Calgary in 2001, a year after they married.