Kyle Unger ecstatic, but not yet vindicated

Kyle Unger and his family are celebrating a new beginning after his 1992 murder conviction was overturned this week.

His mother, Treva Unger, told CBC the ordeal has brought the family together in many ways.

"It's been depressing but like I say, I've believed in his innocence since the whole all along and it's helped me get through it," she said. "We followed him to British Columbia and stuck by his side the whole time through."

Unger said he feels ecstatic but not quite vindicated. He is still facing the possibility of a new trial for the murder of 16-year-old Brigitte Grenier.

"I most definitely do not feel 100 per cent vindicated but it's a beautiful step in the right direction, that's for sure," he said.

Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced Wednesday that a new trial has been ordered for Unger, who spent 14 years in a B.C. prison for the 1990 sexual assault and killing of Grenier. She was been beaten, strangled and sexually mutilated at a rock concert in the small Manitoba community of Roseisle, about 120 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

'I most definitely do not feel 100 per cent vindicated but it's a beautiful step in the right direction, that's for sure.' —Kyle Unger

"I am satisfied there is a reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred in Mr. Unger's 1992 conviction," Nicholson said in announcing his decision.

Unger was convicted, along with Timothy Houlahan, who was released on bail in 1994 when his conviction was overturned by the Manitoba Court of Appeal in 1994. Houlahan committed suicide later that same year.

Unger's initial appeal to the Manitoba Court of Appeal following his conviction was rejected and leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was denied. But in September 2004, a Forensic Evidence Review Committee established by the province called into question the hair comparison evidence used at Unger's trial.

New DNA testing suggested a strand of hair found at the scene of the crime and originally used to convict Unger did not come from him.

Unger's lawyer subsequently filed an application to the minister of justice for a review of the murder conviction. Based on the DNA evidence, a judge of the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench said she had "very serious concerns [he] may have been wrongly convicted of murder."

In November 2005, at age 34, Unger was granted bail pending the minister's decision.

Bail conditions loosened

Following Nicholson's announcement, Unger's bail conditions were loosened Wednesday by a judge at Winnipeg's Court of Queen's Bench.

A curfew restriction that Unger said "kept me from fuller life" was lifted by the court.

"This opens the door to deeper relationships with many people in my life," he said, referring to his girlfriend and close friends in B.C. where he now lives.

Unger, who was in Winnipeg, was scheduled to return to B.C. on Thursday.

'For the truth to come out, for my innocence to be proven, how that happens I don't know [but] it doesn't really matter as long as it does happen.' —Kyle Unger

Despite Nicholson's call for a new trial, Lockyer told media he's not certain there will even be one because there is no forensic evidence left against Unger. In fact, there is more in his defence, Lockyer said.

Police and prosecutors kept evidence from the defence during the original trial and used a jailhouse informant who was not credible, he charged. Since Unger's release, Lockyer said the defence team has discovered evidence Houlahan was a Satanist and the Crown knew it.

"If you know about what [Satanism] is … you would quickly understand how that fits the nature of the crime," he said.

Manitoba Justice has not yet decided whether to proceed with another trial.

"What they [Crown] should do, if they don't go ahead, is call no evidence and allow an acquittal to be entered," Unger's other lawyer, Hersh Wolch, told CBC News on Wednesday.

Whether there is a trial or whether he's acquitted, Unger said he is looking forward to the next step in clearing his name.

"For the truth to come out, for my innocence to be proven, how that happens I don't know [but] it doesn't really matter as long as it does happen," he said.