Fredericton murderer says addiction, mental illness could have contributed to crime
CBC
A Fredericton woman convicted of murder says drug addiction and mental illness could have contributed to her stabbing a man to death three years ago.
Angela April Walsh spoke in Court of King's Bench in Burton on Thursday as part of her sentencing hearing following her second-degree murder conviction in January.
It was the first time Walsh publicly spoke to a courtroom following her initial charge of first-degree murder in the April 2020 killing of Clark Ernest Greene.
Greene's body was found stabbed and bludgeoned near the gazebo in Wilmot Park on April 15, 2020.
Walsh was charged with first-degree murder alongside Zachary Murphy, her boyfriend at the time, but Murphy pleaded guilty in 2021 to the lesser charge of second-degree murder.
"I wanted to apologize and say that I'm sorry for all the harm, mistreatment and pain and hurt I've caused this family," Walsh said Thursday as a handful of Greene's family members sat in the gallery. "I deeply regret it."
She said she'd suffered addition and mental health problems throughout her life.
"But that's not an excuse for what has happened.
"It could be a contributing factor, but I'm trying to work on my sobriety and being a better person than I was three years ago so that way I can change things in the future."
Walsh was set to stand trial on first-degree murder in January, but Murphy, a key Crown witness in the case, took full responsibility for Greene's killing, prompting the Crown and defence to agree to allowing Walsh to also plead guilty to second-degree murder.
She faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison, but Justice Kathryn Gregory can grant her parole eligibility anywhere between 10 and 25 years into her sentence.
Earlier Thursday, the court heard victim impact statements from Greene's mother, brother and aunt, about how his murder has upended their lives.
Cynthia Greene, his mother, said her son was diagnosed with autism in middle schoot and had been bullied and taken advantage of even as an adult.
"It wasn't easy being Clark Greene," she said. "Very few people truly liked him."
