Court rejects appeal of North Bay-area man's first-degree murder conviction

An Ontario court has rejected an appeal by a northern Ont. man who brutally killed his girlfriend in November 2017.

An Ontario court has rejected an appeal by a northern Ont. man who brutally killed his girlfriend in November 2017.

Lawyers for Marc Gauthier sought to overturn his conviction for first-degree murder and have the court order a new trial.

Gauthier was found guilty in March 2020 of murdering his girlfriend in an apartment in Sturgeon Falls. The Crown argued there was sufficient evidence Gauthier had planned the killing and the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder.

But his lawyers launched an appeal on two grounds: that a voicemail admitted as evidence should have been excluded, and that confessions made to police and correctional officers weren't properly scrutinized before they were admitted.

In a decision released Aug. 20, the Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled both arguments were not sufficient to change the outcome.

At the original trial, the victim's sister testified that Gauthier had been verbally abusive to the victim in the days leading up to her death.

"She was afraid, upset about his drug use, and wanted to move away from him," the appeals court decision said.