Details of decapitation case, including adopted persona, body in suitcase, rehashed in B.C. court

A man convicted of the gruesome murder of his roommate more than a decade ago was back in a British Columbia court recently, trying to argue he is not criminally responsible for the death.

Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of a Metro Vancouver murder case. Reader discretion is advised.

A man convicted of the gruesome murder of his roommate more than a decade ago was back in a British Columbia court recently, trying to argue he is not criminally responsible for the death.

Ernest Allan Hosack appeared before a panel of B.C. Court of Appeal judges this week to hear a judgment after arguing his conviction should be overturned.

His legal team told the court during a hearing back in December that Hosack's trial judge should not have allowed the use of a statement he'd made to police as evidence. Lawyers said too that he should have been found not criminally responsible by account of mental disorder, and that the proceedings should have been stayed.

The judges disagreed, dismissing the efforts in a judgment on Tuesday.

Their reasons, posted online, outlined details that came out during Hosack's trial over the second-degree murder of Richard Falardeau in 2008.

The court heard that Falardeau, who was 54 when he died, met his convicted killer when Hosack, then a stranger, defended him in some kind of altercation at a Starbucks location.