Law360 Canada (September 5, 2024, 11:07 AM EDT) -- Appeal by Ball from his conviction for first-degree murder of his former intimate partner, Howlett. The Crown's case relied heavily on the testimony of Warwick, Ball’s drug associate, who claimed that Ball confessed to killing Howlett by choking her after finding a photo on her phone. Warwick assisted in disposing of Howlett's body in a duffel bag in a river. Forensic evidence could not determine Howlett's cause of death due to decomposition. Ball raised three grounds of appeal relating to the jury instructions: that the trial judge (judge) failed to properly instruct on the standard of proof regarding the evidence of Howlett's cause of death; that the judge failed to give an adequate warning about Warwick's accomplice-type evidence; that the judge erred in responding to the jury's request to review the pathologist's evidence. The Crown likely argued that the jury instructions were adequate when viewed as a whole, that no special scrutiny instruction was required for Warwick's evidence, and that the judge properly exercised discretion in responding to the jury's request....