Judge, prosecutor in Windsor mistrial filing had previously 'erred' in Woodstock case

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The last time assistant Crown attorney Tom Meehan and Superior Court Justice Kelly Gorman met in a murder trial, it did not end well.

The pair, accused of fraternizing during a recent murder trial in Windsor, were both involved in a 2012 murder trial in Woodstock. The Ontario Court of Appeal recently ruled on that 2012 case, ordering a new trial on a lesser charge.

In the Woodstock case, the appellate court ruled that Meehan was permitted to “invite the jury” to use evidence incorrectly. The Court of Appeal said it was up to Gorman to set that straight, but she failed to do so.

The case involved a man named John Douglas Robinson, who, after his trial, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Robinson lived in Woodstock with his girlfriend, Amy Gilbert. Both were alcoholics who suffered from mental illness.

Gilbert had maintained a casual friendship with her former boyfriend, Clifford Fair. One night Fair showed up at Gilbert and Robinson’s apartment. After they’d all had several beers each, Robinson wanted Fair to leave. Saying he only intended to “shoo” Fair from his home, Robinson struck Fair on the head with an aluminum pipe wrapped in a towel.

Fair died.

Robinson dug a shallow grave in the backyard and buried Fair’s body. A day or two later, Robinson dug up Fair’s body and buried it in a deeper grave. A day or two after that, Robinson dug up Fair’s body again and dismembered it. He covered the body parts in quicklime to hide the smell and buried them in three separate holes.

The Court of Appeal said Meehan “erroneously invited the jury on more than one occasion” to use Robinson’s after-the-fact conduct as evidence of intent or evidence of planning and deliberation.

The judge failed to point out Meehan’s error in her final instructions to jurors and, in fact, “misdirected” them to consider Robinson’s conduct “before, at the time and after the unlawful act.”

The court of appeal, in its 87-paragraph decision, found “the trial judge erred in law.”

It overturned the conviction on the charge of first-degree murder and ordered a new trial on a lesser charge.

“The conviction on the charge of first-degree murder is unreasonable,” the court said. “There are errors in the jury instruction that require a new trial on the charge of second-degree murder.”

The Woodstock trial brought together Gorman, who normally presides in London, and Meehan, who works in the provincial Crown’s office in Windsor.

The pair met again this year for the Windsor trial of Andrew Cowan, the driver of a Ford F-150 pickup truck that in October 2012 climbed a curb at an estimated 150 kilometres per hour and hurtled over a ramp-shaped flowerbed and into the second storey of a commercial building in Leamington. Cowan’s best friend, Edward Witt, was in the passenger seat and died from injuries he suffered in the crash.

Cowan’s trial heard he and Witt had made a suicide pact after a night of drinking and heavy gambling losses at Caesars Windsor.

A jury convicted Cowan of second-degree murder. But defence lawyer Patrick Ducharme is calling for a mistrial with the stunning allegation that Gorman was biased against his client by virtue of her “close friendship” with Meehan, the prosecutor in the case.

Ducharme’s mistrial application says the Ministry of the Attorney General’s regional director of Crown operations launched an investigation after learning Gorman and Meehan had exchanged text messages and met for drinks and dinner after the jury returned its verdict.

The mistrial application will be heard next month.

ssacheli@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/WinStarSacheli