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A camera was rolling in a Saskatchewan court room for the first time as the Court of Appeals upheld Douglas Hales’ murder conviction.
Hales was convicted last year of killing Daleen Bosse on the May long weekend in 2004 before burning and hiding her body. In 2008, Hales led undercover officers to where he hid Bosse’s body north of Saskatoon. The officers were posing as low-level criminals in what is known as a ‘Mr. Big’ sting operation.
In Court of Appeal in Regina on Monday, Hales’ lawyers argued that the trial judge did not take into account the vulnerable position Hales was in when he was befriended by undercover officers. The lawyers say the officers offered Hales money and manipulated him in order to gain a confession.
The Crown argued that the trial judge weighed out the issue of vulnerability and correctly concluded it didn’t exist.
Justices Neal Caldwell, Georgina Jackson and Peter Whitmore (from left to right in accompanying picture) unanimously upheld the guilty verdict. In a spoken decision, the justices determined the trial judge made no reversible decision in the guilty conviction, and that the conviction wasn’t unreasonable given that Hales had admitted to the crime on several occasions.
Hales has been sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years.
A video camera was allowed in the court room for Monday’s proceedings – the first time the media has been allowed to do so in a Saskatchewan court. The court granted the media permission “on a pilot basis”.