A Nova Scotia man convicted of committing a Hells Angels-ordered killing in October 2000 has been granted a new trial by the province’s Court of Appeal.
Dean Kelsie was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder by a judge and jury in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 25 years.
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But now, more than 14 years after Kelsie began serving the sentence, the Appeal Court has ruled that the trial judge erred in his instructions to the jury.
It says the judge failed to properly instruct the jury on the law, and erred in his instructions on what the jurors could make of the hearsay evidence of co-conspirators.
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The ruling also says the judge should have given the lesser included offence of manslaughter as an alternative verdict.
Sean Simmons was shot in the head, in the lobby of a Dartmouth apartment building, because he’d had an affair with a girlfriend of a member of the motorcycle gang.
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