Appeal court orders new trial for man acquitted in Courtepatte murder

The Court of Appeal of Alberta has ordered a new trial for a man acquitted of killing 13-year-old Nina Courtepatte, who was raped and killed on an Edmonton golf course in April 2005.

Michael Briscoe, who was 34 at the time he was charged, was found not guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault in March 2007, but the Crown appealed his acquittal.

In a ruling released Tuesday morning, the Court of Appeal ruled the judge erred when he found Briscoe not guilty.

"The Crown has established that the trial judge erred in failing to consider whether the respondent was wilfully blind to the harm his cohorts intended to cause the victim," Justice Peter Martin wrote in the ruling. "But for this error, the verdicts may well have been different."

Alberta Justice Minister and Attorney General Alison Redford said she was pleased with the court's ruling.

"What we tell people and what we will continue to tell them is that our job is to prosecute people," she said. "That if we feel that people have been acquitted that should not have been acquitted, then we will make sure that we pursue as far as we possibly can every element of the law that we can to ensure that they are properly brought to trial and, if appropriate, prosecuted."

Four other people have been found guilty in relation to Courtepatte's rape and murder.

Joseph Laboucan, who was 19 at the time of the killing, and Michael Williams, who was 17, are serving life sentences for first-degree murder.

Stephanie Bird, who was also 17 at the time, is serving a 12-year sentence for kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and manslaughter.

A 19-year-old woman, who was 16 at the time of Courtepatte's slaying and cannot be named, was found guilty in July of second-degree murder.