A Superior Court judge has granted bail to the man from Hamilton’s suburb of Binbrook who was found guilty of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a Six Nations man in February 2016.
The Crown’s application to deny Peter Khill bail for killing Jonathan Styres was based on the tertiary grounds of maintaining public confidence in the justice system, saying he no longer has the presumption of innocence.
On Friday, a 12-member jury found Khill guilty of manslaughter rather than second-degree murder, indicating that they didn’t believe Khill had the intent to kill Styres when he shot him and didn’t have the state of mind to commit murder.
During Tuesday’s bail hearing, Khill’s defence attorney Jeffrey Manishen argued that his client has already been out on bail without incident for more than 60 months at this point, between his original arrest in 2016 and a new release order in February 2020.
Khill was previously found not guilty of second-degree murder during his first trial in 2018 but that verdict was overturned by the Ontario court of appeal and upheld when the Supreme Court ordered a new trial for him in 2020.
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Judge Andrew Goodman is allowing Khill to remain out on $100,000 bail until he’s sentenced but he acknowledged that it was a “close call.”
“There’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll be criticized today for being too lenient, too compassionate, recognizing that Jonathan Styres cannot be with his loved ones ever – or at this time of year,” he told the court.
“However, for the moment, I am persuaded that Mr. Khill can be with his family during this holiday time, during this period, and more importantly, should prepare himself for a potentially lengthy period of time to serve in a federal penitentiary.”
Khill will return to court to set a date for sentencing on Jan. 20.
The minimum sentence for manslaughter with a firearm is four years behind bars.
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