The Supreme Court of Canada has restored the second-degree murder conviction of a Halifax-area man who admitted to burning his girlfriend’s body but insisted he didn’t kill her.
Paul Trevor Calnen was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder in the death of Reita Louise Jordan, 35, in March 2013.
The man from Hammonds Plains, N.S., pleaded guilty to burning her body and scattering her ashes in a lake, but maintained he did not cause her death, claiming she accidentally fell down the stairs.
The Nova Scotia Appeal Court decision said Jordan was living with Calnen at the time of her death.
The sexual relationship, which appeared to have been fuelled by their joint use of crack cocaine, was coming to an end.
Text messages revealed Jordan was planning to move out of Calnen’s home, and that there was a heated exchange between the two.
Calnen claimed that Jordan took a swing at him in anger, missed, and fell down the stairs.
He said he tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but decided she was dead.
Rather than call for help, Calnen consumed crack cocaine and decided to remove Jordan’s body from his home.
Over the following weeks, Calnen went to great lengths to destroy her body, burning it a number of times before scattering her ashes in a lake.
Calnen was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years. He received a concurrent sentence of five years after pleading guilty to indecently interfering with human remains.