Case information

Criminal law — Evidence — Admissibility — Charge to jury — Whether trial judge erred by advising jury that they could consider whether accused made an adoptive admission — Whether charge to the jury provided tools sufficient to analyse issue of adoptive admission — Whether trial judge erred by allowing jury to consider accused’s statement to prison guard?

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

At Mr. Cudney’s trial before a jury for murder, the Crown’s case included evidence that the victim had a past association with the Independent Soldiers gang and evidence from a prison official that Mr. Cudney said that he “killed an IS”. The jury also was charged to consider whether Mr. Cudney made an adoptive admission based on evidence from an unsavoury witness describing the “gist” of what he alleged Mr. Cudney and a co-participant said to him after the murder but the witness could not recall who said what. The jury convicted Mr. Cudney of second degree murder. The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal.