Law360 Canada ( September 21, 2026, 9:42 AM EDT) -- Appeal by appellant from his conviction for second-degree murder. The Crown’s case was based on circumstantial evidence, the appellant’s recorded statements to police, and the testimony of a Vetrovec witness, Anderson. The appellant admitted he and the deceased were involved in a violent altercation on the evening the deceased disappeared but maintained the deceased left the scene in a van. The Crown alleged the appellant killed the deceased by beating and binding him, placing him in a storage trailer, and later dumping his body in the Fraser River. The forensic pathologist concluded the cause of death was undetermined, the blunt force injuries were not sufficient to explain the death, the deceased did not die of natural causes and discussed strangulation and suffocation as possible causes of death. Anderson testified that the appellant asked him to clean a storage trailer, that the water in the bucket turned red, and that the appellant made admissions amounting to a confession. On appeal, the appellant argued that the trial judge materially misstated Dr. Morin’s evidence respecting suffocation and strangulation in the final charge, that the Vetrovec instruction failed to provide adequate guidance concerning the need for special scrutiny of Anderson’s evidence and the danger of accepting his unconfirmed inculpatory evidence, and that there were additional errors in the jury charge....