Cody Muise, convicted of killing Brandon Hatcher, loses appeal
Blair Rhodes | CBC News | Posted: June 3, 2015 4:52 PM | Last Updated: June 3, 2015
Cody Muise killed Brandon Hatcher in ongoing gang war
A convicted killer has failed in his attempt to get his conviction and life sentence overturned by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.
Cody Alexander Muise was convicted of first-degree murder in the Dec. 3, 2010 shooting death of Brandon Hatcher. The pair had a history and were in rival drug gangs at the time of Hatcher's death.
Hatcher was killed in front of his Spryfield home in a gun battle with Muise and two other men.
The pair had exchanged threatening texts and phone calls earlier in the day and Muise believed Hatcher had made two previous attempts on his life.
At the time of his murder, Hatcher came out of his home and fired a shot. Muise and his accomplices returned fire and Hatcher was hit. He bled to death in his home on Lavender Walk.
In his appeal, Muise argued the trial judge failed to properly instruct the jury on self-defence.
"The outstanding issues for murder were whether his discharge of the rifle caused Mr. Hatcher's death," wrote Justice Joel Fichaud on behalf of a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal.
"Was it self-defence, did Mr. Muise have the required intent and was it planned and deliberate?"
Fichaud wrote that the trial judge made no error in his charge to the jury, so the murder conviction stands.