(( Wendy Scott in a Facebook photo posted in 2008. The Crown stayed a murder charge against the women Friday.))
Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
An Alberta justice on Friday granted a stay of proceedings against a woman with an IQ of 50 who was facing a retrial on a first degree murder charge in the killing of a 48 year-old man from Medicine Hat, Alta.
Wendy Scott was facing a charge of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in a retrial scheduled to begin with a voir dire on Jan. 30.
Scott was granted a new trial by the Alberta Court of Appeal in October 2015 after the Crown in her case conceded a serious error led to her initial conviction.
During a hearing last Friday in the Court of Queen’s Bench Medicine Hat courtroom, Crown prosecutor Doug Taylor requested a stay of proceedings on both charges.
The request was granted by Justice J.H. Langston, according to the court record.
Scott was a co-accused along with Connie Oakes, a Cree woman from the Nekaneet First Nation, who was released from prison last April after the Court of Appeal, in a majority decision, ruled Oakes had been wrongfully convicted of Armstrong’s murder and ordered a new trial.
The Crown in that case quickly filed for a stay of proceedings, which was granted.
Casey Armstrong’s body was found in the bathtub of his Medicine Hat trailer during the May 2010 long-weekend.
Medicine Hat police never recovered the murder weapon and failed to trace the source of large bloody boot print left on the floor of Armstrong’s bathroom.
With no DNA, finger prints or any other physical evidence tying suspects to the murder, Medicine Hat police and the Crown prosecutor relied exclusively on Scott’s often conflicting testimony to build a murder case against both women.
– more to come
