KELOWNA, BC — B.C.’s highest court has ordered a new trial for a Kelowna man convicted of manslaughter in the death of Jennifer Cusworth. She was a 19-year-old college student who was beaten and strangled to death in 1993.
Neil Snelson wasn’t charged until 2009, sixteen years after the murder, and only when D-N-A evidence revealed he had sex with Cusworth after a house party.
At the trial, the Crown presented the jury with a statement Snelson made to police, in which he repeatedly asserted his right to silence and at one point said he hadn’t decided whether he planned to plead guilty.
But the defence says the judge was wrong to allow the statement into evidence.
The Crown told the jury Snelson’s comments to police indicated he was guilty, leading the B.C. Appeal Court to rule the statement was inadmissible.
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