New murder trial ordered

Appeal: Ronald Menard to be re-tried for death of Diane Ellison.

B.C.’s highest court has ordered a new trial for Ronald Kenneth Menard, a Salmon Arm man who was convicted of first-degree murder in the strangling death of Diane Ellison.

A Kamloops jury convicted Menard in March 2008 of killing Ellison in her Salmon Arm residence following a disagreement over cocaine. Her ex-husband and another man found Ellison, half-naked with a pair of pants tied around her neck, in her apartment several days after she was killed.

After a lengthy RCMP undercover operation, known as the Mr. Big sting, Menard admitted his involvement to a constable who was posing as the boss of an influential criminal organization.

Evidence presented indicated Menard believed Ellison was attempting to steal his drugs and he choked the woman with his hands and then strangled her with the pair of pants. The Crown’s theory was that Menard had caused the death while committing or attempting to commit a sexual assault, based on Menard’s statements to police that he had a sexual interest in Ellison and that he may have altered her clothing after she was dead.

Menard’s lawyers argued the appeal, saying the judge failed to properly instruct the jury, and that a change in the Crown’s theory near the end of the trial did not give enough notice for them to properly defend the case.

The three Appeal Court justices agreed.

“We are also of the view that the appellant (Menard) was irreparably prejudiced by the late change in the Crown’s theory of liability,” stated the court’s reasons for judgement.

Menard currently remains in custody. At press time, no date had been set for the new trial.

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