KELOWNA, B.C. – A Kelowna, B.C. man is filing an appeal of his manslaughter conviction in a cold case killing broken open by DNA evidence.
Forty-seven-year-old Neil Snelson was found guilty by a B.C. Supreme Court jury in October in the beating and strangling death of Jennifer Cusworth in 1993.
His lawyer, Wade Jenson, says the appeal is based on the evidence heard at the trial.
“We believe that potentially there were errors made in terms of evidence that went before the jury,” he said.
Cusworth was a college student whose body was found in a ditch the day after she and Snelson attended a house party.
Court heard she’d been killed with a blow to the head with a blunt object, and a piece of lumber with Cusworth’s hair on it and a black belt she’d worn were found near the ditch where her body was discovered.
The crime went unsolved until investigators were able to make a DNA match between Snelson and evidence found in Cusworth’s body.
During his trial, Snelson admitted having sex with a woman after the party but said he was too drunk to remember who she was.
He was handed a 15 year sentence after his conviction. (CKFR)
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