Man convicted in 1996 Winnipeg triple murder must wait to hear if he'll get bail
Judge reserves decision on Robert Sanderson, who was found guilty in fatal attacks
One of three men convicted in a Winnipeg triple murder 22 years ago hopes to get out on bail.
Robert Sanderson made an application in a Winnipeg court Friday. Court of Queen's Bench Justice Sheldon Lanchbery reserved his decision for a later date.
Wearing a green shirt, with his grey hair tied back in a long ponytail, a shackled Sanderson was escorted into court and waved at about 10 loved ones in the gallery.
Justice Lanchbery issued a publication ban before hearing submissions from Crown prosecutor Mark Kantor and Sanderson's defence team, which includes lawyer James Lockyer with Innocence Canada, formerly known as the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted. Lockyer than said he had no plans of requesting such a ban.
Sanderson was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 6, 1996, deaths of Jason Gross, Russel Krowetz and Stefan Zurstag.
Roger Sanderson and Robert Tews were also convicted in the fatal torturing, stabbing and shooting of the men in what police say was part of a gang turf war over control of prostitution in Winnipeg.
Police found a hair on the foot of a victim and claimed lab analysis known as hair microscopy showed it was Sanderson's.
The same type of hair testing led to the conviction of James Driskell and Kyle Unger in separate Winnipeg murder cases in the early 1990s.
2 other men released after new tests
But in the mid-2000s, new advanced DNA tests revealed the hair samples didn't match any of the three men and cast doubt on the reliability of the original hair testing method.
Driskell was released and eventually received $4 million in compensation. The province backed a federal review of Unger's case, which was also handled by Lockyer, and he was released more than a decade ago.
In 2005, the Manitoba government said there was no "obvious miscarriage of justice" and wouldn't endorse a federal review of Sanderson's conviction as it did for Unger, in part because a review found there was still ample circumstantial evidence incriminating Sanderson.
That disappointed Lockyer, who told CBC News at the time that a "substantial piece of the Crown's case is now shown to be false."
Witnesses testified to events before and after the murders, and traces of the victims' blood were found in Sanderson's car and on a bat in the trunk.
One of the three men in the case was released after two additional trials ordered by the Court of Appeal.
Sanderson continues to serve a life sentence.
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