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Jury deliberating in Brett Overby 2nd-degree murder trial

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Chris Martin told the jury they can arrive at one of two conclusions: guilty of second-degree murder or guilty of manslaughter.

Overby admitted to killing Christine Wood in August 2016, but said he did not mean to

Jillian Taylor · CBC News ·
Brett Overby has admitted killing Christine Wood. His fate is now in the hands of the jury. (Instagram)

The fate of a Winnipeg man on trial for second-degree murder is now in the hands of the jury.

On Tuesday Brett Overby told the court he killed Christine Wood, 21, on Aug. 20, 2016, but did not intend to. He also admitted to cleaning up her blood from his basement, burying her body in a farmer's field and lying to police.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Chris Martin told the jury of nine men and three women on Wednesday morning they can arrive at one of two verdicts:

  • Guilty of second-degree murder.
  • Guilty of manslaughter.

Overby's lawyer, Sarah Inness, argued that being responsible for Wood's death does not make him guilty of second-degree murder. She has argued he should be convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

The Crown argued he knew what he was doing when he killed Wood and should be convicted of second-degree murder.

Overby, 32, testified that after Wood lunged at him with a knife he snapped and blacked out. He told the jury when he came to Wood was lying face down in a pool of blood.

The trial began on April 30 and the Crown called 13 witnesses over four days, including Wood's parents, police investigators, the pathologist who conducted Wood's autopsy, the farmer who found her body and Overby's former girlfriend.

Christine Wood took a selfie using her mother's phone on the last day her family saw her, Aug. 19, 2016. (Melinda Wood)

Inness called three witnesses: Overby and two men who dated Wood in the summer of 2016.

The jury heard Wood met all three men on the online dating site Plenty of Fish.

All three men testified she punched them in the face while she was intoxicated.

Wood, who was from Oxford House, was last seen by parents on Aug. 19, 2016. Her remains were discovered by a farmer in a field in the rural municipality of Springfield on June 1, 2017, two months after Overby was charged with the crime.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jillian Taylor

Jillian Taylor is the Executive Producer of News at CBC Manitoba. She started reporting in 2007 and spent more than a decade in the field before moving behind the scenes. Jillian's journalism career has focused on covering issues facing Indigenous people, specifically missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. She is a born-and-raised Manitoban and a member of the Fisher River Cree Nation.

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