Hotel room killer appeals conviction

The man convicted of one of the most grisly murders in Winnipeg history will be back in court Friday to argue for a new trial.

Sidney Teerhuis-Moar, 41, is being transported from a Saskatchewan prison to Winnipeg for a hearing in front of Manitoba's Court of Appeal.

Teerhuis-Moar is appealing his second-degree murder conviction in the 2004 killing of Robin Greene, 38.

Greene was stabbed, beheaded, castrated, dismembered and disembowelled in a room at the Royal Albert Arms hotel in Winnipeg.

Jurors at Teerhuis-Moar's 2008 trial heard that after killing Greene, Teerhuis-Moar neatly stacked the body parts in the room's bathtub.

All of Greene's organs were removed and none were recovered, despite a search of the suite, the plumbing in the hotel and dumpsters outside, the Crown said.

Seven of the 12 jurors who convicted Teerhuis-Moar recommended he serve a minimum of 25 years in prison before being eligible for parole.

The judge hearing the case agreed and handed him the same sentence a person would get for first-degree murder.

Teerhuis-Moar had unsuccessfully sought a conviction on the lesser charge of manslaughter, arguing he was too intoxicated to have planned the killing.

Court documents indicate Teerhuis-Moar his appeal is based on alleged errors made by the trial judge, including how jurors were instructed to consider the evidence. In all, Teerhuis-Moar is appealing on 13 grounds.

'Dire straits'

In a Jan. 12 handwritten letter to the registrar of the court, Teerhuis-Moar apologizes for the late filing of documents related to his appeal.

"My personal health is in dire straits," he wrote. "I'm still recovering from flesh-eating disease, wheelchair-bound and am suffering from … liver disease," he said.

In the letter, he also indicated he was considering representing himself in his appeal, but it appears veteran defence lawyer Greg Brodsky has been hired to argue on his behalf. Brodsky represented Teerhuis-Moar at trial.

Teerhuis-Moar claims that there were discrepancies at his trial, and that the Crown prosecutor "based a lot of her argument on hearsay."

"She did not do her homework on biology," Teerhuis-Moar wrote.

He also said his lawyer, Brodsky, "did not do half of what I had asked of him — he did not call on any forensic specialists, or any witnesses I had requested."

In the letter, he takes issue with the testimony of Dr. Charles Littman, the pathologist who performed Greene's autopsy.

"As for Dr. Littman, he seems (and was) inaccurate on how Robin Greene died," Teerhuis-Moar said.

"In 2006, Dr. Littman states Mr. Greene had died of a fatal stab wound to the heart, yet all the internal organs had been removed, so how could he come to that conclusion?"