The Alberta Court of Appeal has dismissed a bid by Kristopher Guenther to have his first-degree murder conviction overturned.
Guenther was convicted of killing his ex-fiancée Lacey Jones-McKnight in March 2015. She was strangled to death in October 2012.
Guenther had challenged the conviction, suggesting the trial judge erred in law by finding he confined Jones-McKnight while killing her, providing the necessary elements for constructive first-degree murder.
Watch below from March 2015: A judge has found Kristopher Guenther guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his former fiancée, Lacey Jones-McKnight. Nancy Hixt reports.
Guenther’s defence argued her hands and feet were bound as a part of a consensual sex act and said he should instead be found guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder.
“We conclude that the first ground of appeal is without merit,” the panel of appeal court justices said in a written decision released Tuesday.
READ MORE: Court releases 911 call made on the night of Lacey Jones-McKnight’s murder
“On this record, the trial judge properly concluded that forcible confinement elevating the murder to first-degree murder was made out,” the ruling explains.
The appeal court dismissed two further grounds of appeal; the conviction for first degree-murder stands.
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Jones-McKnight’s mother said she’s relieved by the ruling.
“That’s probably been the hardest thing from the very beginning of the court process: his absolutely pathetic attempt to get off with the charges lessened to second degree,” Shelly Jones told Global News. “Not only did he murder my daughter, but he still to this day is disrespecting her … and desecrating her memory.”
Jones said the court process has been never-ending and worries it isn’t over yet.
“As promised, I will continue to fight for her until I take my last breath,” she said. “He has to pay for what he has done. He murdered my daughter; he planned it. What he did was horrific.”
Guenther was given an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
— with files from Global’s Erika Tucker and News Talk 770’s John Himpe
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