Summary

Keywords

Criminal law — Offences — Elements of offence — Mens rea — Murder — Whether trial judge erred by relying on common sense inference that sane and sober person intends the natural consequences of their actions — Whether trial judge erred in holding that abandonment of victim satisfied mens rea requirement in circumstances of case

Summary

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The victim owed the accused money. The accused and an accomplice assaulted and forcibly confined the victim in his car. They took the victim to a remote location; en route, the accused placed calls using the victim’s cell phone in which he told people that the victim was a “dead man”. At the remote location, the accused and his accomplice beat the victim severely, cut him with a machete, removed his shoes, and left him in a field wearing a t-shirt and pants in freezing conditions at night without his cell phone or vehicle. The victim died that night. There were four contributing factors to his death: his injuries, exposure to the cold, intoxication from drugs, and an enlarged heart. The accused admitted most of these facts and offered to plead guilty to manslaughter. The only issue for trial was whether he had the required mens rea for murder.

The trial judge held that, by the time the accused arrived at the remote location, his words to the recipients of the phone calls combined with the circumstances in which he abandoned the victim permitted a common sense inference that the accused intended the natural consequence of his actions: in this case, the victim’s death. He found the applicant guilty of first-degree murder.

The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal, holding that the trial judge had a sufficient basis in the circumstances of this case to employ the common sense inference and to conclude that abandoning the victim in these circumstances satisfied the mens rea for murder.

Lower Court Rulings