NEWS FILE PHOTO/COURTESY OF APTN
Connie Oakes, who was found guilty of the 2011 second-degree murder of city resident Casey Armstrong, during a jailhouse interview with APTN in the fall of 2015.
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Multiple members of the Medicine Hat Police Service and a local Crown prosecutor are being sued for $1 million by Connie Oakes over her arrest, and ensuing years of trial and imprisonment surrounding the 2011 murder of Casey Armstrong.
Papers filed in the Court of Queen’s Bench on April 27 allege police and Crown “participated in procuring a wrongful imprisonment and a wrongful conviction” of Oakes, causing her damage.
Police were “negligent and malicious” while the conduct of the Crown prosecutor was “in respect, malicious,” the documents allege.
Oakes and Wendy Scott were charged with first-degree murder following the stabbing death of Casey Armstrong in 2011.
Oakes was found guilty of second-degree murder in 2013 by a jury, and subsequently sentenced in 2014 to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 14 years.
This decision was overturned in April 2016 by the Court of Appeals, after the sole witness to the crime, Scott, was deemed to be unreliable due to her low cognitive abilities and the inconsistency of her testimony. Scott’s testimony was the only direct evidence linking Oakes to the murder. No DNA, fingerprints or any other physical evidence was presented at the trial.
Scott, who has an IQ of 50, pled guilty to second-degree murder and testified against Oakes.
She was sentenced in November 2012 to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 10 years. That plea deal was also overturned and a new trial ordered.
The charges against both Scott and Oakes were then stayed by the Crown and weren’t re-initiated within a year, so were withdrawn.
“As this case is before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment,” is the statement issued by a spokesperson from the Justice and Solicitor General Ministry, when contacted by the News for comment.
