Boyfriend's murder conviction tossed out by Ontario Court of Appeal
A new trial has been ordered for a Windsor man who confessed to stabbing his girlfriend to death in 2016.
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A Windsor man serving a life sentence in prison for the brutal 2016 slaying of his girlfriend in a jealous rage has had his 2018 murder conviction overturned.
A three-judge panel with the Court of Appeal for Ontario, in a decision released Tuesday, has ordered a retrial for John Wayne Pierre, who received an automatic life sentence after a jury unanimously found him guilty of second-degree murder following a three-week trial in September 2018.
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Pierre admitted at his trial to killing Lesley Watterworth, 42, at her Curry Avenue home on Nov. 1, 2016, during a jealous rage following a sleepless drinking and drug-taking binge over several days. Jurors heard the victim sustained 69 wounds, mostly stabbings, as well as numerous bruises. Pierre, about 47 at the time, was arrested a short time later.
But the Court of Appeal panel concluded, following a hearing on May 14, that it had “no alternative but to allow the appeal” based on what it described as the jury having been “in all probability … not accurately and sufficiently instructed” by the presiding judge at the Windsor trial.
In particular, the appeal court pointed to how then-Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance presented the accused’s “disordered mental state” in her lengthy instructions to the jury ahead of its deliberations at the end of the trial, as well as how she described his “after-the-fact conduct” — something emphasized by the prosecution — both of which spoke to whether or not Pierre had the “required mental state for murder.”
The trial heard how Pierre donned a business suit over blood-spattered overalls immediately following the killing, and then went to a friend’s, the Beer Store and then a restaurant inside Windsor’s casino where he ordered “the largest thing on the menu.” When he couldn’t pay the bill, police became involved and detectives were soon directed to the gruesome homicide scene and the deceased woman.
In her sentencing decision delivered six years ago, Justice Pomerance, herself now a judge on the Court of Appeal, described it as a “challenging trial.”
The defence had argued for a lesser manslaughter conviction, with Pierre described by a psychologist as having had a troubled and abusive upbringing and an adult life with drug, alcohol and mental health issues.
“It was a brutal combination of those issues in his life,” his then-defence lawyer Ken Marley recalls in an interview with the Star this week. He described the killing as “an unusual event in a very troubled life.”
According to the evidence at trial and at the appeal hearing, there had been three days straight of partying and drug-taking, including crystal meth and crack, and no sleep. Pierre “exploded” when it was suggested his girlfriend had cheated on him with an ex-boyfriend while he was away, attending a rehab program at Brentwood Recovery Home. Neighbours later testified at the trial they’d heard the arguing and fighting and then silence, but nobody called police.
While describing the trial judge as having done “an admirable job” in setting out general legal principles to the jury ahead of its deliberations, the appeal court panel criticized Pomerance for what it judged was her lack of proper instructions in regards to the accused’s after-the-fact conduct as presented by the Crown.
“The charge (to the jury was) otherwise a model of clarity, concision, and accuracy,” the Court of Appeal panel wrote.
Marley, who was not involved in the appeal and couldn’t explain why it took six years to be heard, told the Star the ball is now in the Ontario attorney general’s court. Among the options: setting a date for a retrial; seeking leave to appeal the decision by the province’s highest court to the Supreme Court of Canada; or, possibly, coming to some kind of agreement in which Pierre would be allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter.
The latter could mean the Windsor killer walks.
Convicted of second-degree murder, Pierre was handed an automatic life sentence, but Justice Pomerance set his parole ineligibility period at 15 years. Given standard credit for pre-sentence time served, Marley said it’s “conceivable” that his former client, after having already spent nine years in actual custody, “could be in a time-served position.”
Marley, a veteran local criminal defence lawyer, said he was personally unaware of any ruling by Justice Pomerance having ever been successfully appealed during her approximately 18 years on Windsor’s Superior Court of Justice bench, where she presided over some of the most challenging and sensational trials.
“While she was a judge in Windsor … she clearly knew the law better than most of us,” said Marley.
Editor’s Note: This story was edited to correct the first name of the victim.
