Yellowknife man's killer loses appeal

Gerald Delorme, the man at the centre of a brutal murder in Yellowknife seven years ago, has lost an appeal to have his murder conviction overturned.

A jury found Gerald Delorme guilty in 2005 of second-degree murder in the death of Justin Vo two years earlier.

Vo was beaten, then strangled to death with an electrical cord in a Yellowknife crack house in 2003. His charred remains were found near the Yellowknife River bridge.

Delorme argued that the trial judge failed to adequately warn jurors against relying on two accomplices, Francis Yukon and Richard Tutin, who had testified against him.

Yukon and Tutin, who both pleaded guilty to lesser charges in connection with Vo's death, were both involved in Yellowknife's crack cocaine trade and had lied to police about elements of the murder.

But in a recent decision, the N.W.T. Court of Appeal said much of both men's testimony was corroborated by Delorme himself in statements to police.

Delorme was sentenced to life in a federal prison with no chance of parole for 14 years. He has been serving his term in an Edmonton penitentiary.