A Cape Breton man found guilty of strangling a 19-year-old woman to death will get a court-appointed lawyer as he continues to appeal his conviction.
Thomas Ted Barrett was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Brett MacKinnon, whose remains were found in 2008 near a Glace Bay hiking trail, two years after she went missing.
Barrett was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 15 years on April 13, 2016.
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The Crown’s case relied partly on Sheryl Flynn’s videotaped statement to police in 2012 of what Barrett told her about the killing during a conversation in 2009.
Flynn’s evidence was given before her overdose death in October 2013.
In a written decision, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge found Barrett “lacks the means to retain counsel himself,” but added that the motion “should fail because the appeal lacks merit.”
In Barrett’s appeal, he alleges he had an “ineffective counsel” and complains that there were “inconsistencies in the evidence that were not fully explored by his trial counsel.”
“Many of Mr. Barrett’s grounds simply disagree with the trial judge’s analysis of the evidence and her credibility findings. On their face, these grounds do not appear compelling,” Tuesday’s decision reads.
“Similarly, the allegations against counsel do not readily persuade. No telling lines of inquiry were obviously excluded. A bare complaint that the judge was biased because of Mr. Barrett’s notoriety and criminal record is not a meritorious ground of appeal.”
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Barrett is also charged in the second-degree murder of Laura Jessome, 21, in 2012, whose remains were discovered May 25 in a hockey bag floating on the Mira River.
–With files from The Canadian Press
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