The appeal court agreed with Crown that Buddy Underwood's conduct was 'integral' to 2019 homicide
A trial court erred when it convicted an Alberta man of second-degree murder for his involvement in a high-profile killing, the Alberta Court of Appeal said in a decision Wednesday, which convicted the man of first-degree murder instead.
“We have no difficulty concluding that, had the trial judge applied correct law to his findings of fact, he would have found Mr. Underwood’s acts were a substantial and integral cause of Ms. Duperron’s death,” Justice Frans Slatter wrote in the decision. Justices Jolaine Antonio and Tamara Friesen concurred.
The appeals court further dismissed an appeal of the second-degree conviction by the defendant, Buddy Ray Underwood, who argued the trial judge incorrectly rejected evidence from a key witness. Underwood argued the trial court also erred when it ruled that Underwood had aided and abetted another defendant with the murder, even though the judge never explicitly determined that the second defendant had killed the victim.
The court sentenced Underwood to life imprisonment. He will not be eligible for parole for 25 years.
Underwood was one of multiple defendants convicted for their involvement in the killing of Nature Duperron, a 25-year-old mother of three, in 2019. According to Wednesday’s decision, the trial judge who convicted Underwood found it “very clear” he was “calling the shots” when the group decided to beat and kidnap Duperron, forcibly inject her with fentanyl, and leave her to die outside of Hinton, Alberta.
A medical examiner told the trial court it was very likely Duperron died of fentanyl and methamphetamine poisoning rather than from external injuries or exposure to the elements.
Crown prosecutors and Underwood both appealed the trial court’s judgment.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the prosecutors’ assertion that the trial judge made two errors. According to prosecutors, the first error occurred when the trial court focused on Duperron’s medical cause of death instead of the facts establishing that she “would not have died ‘but for’” Underwood’s actions. This focus led the trial judge to mistakenly conclude that Underwood’s conduct did not establish a case of first-degree murder.
Because Underwood did not directly inject Duperron with fentanyl, the trial judge did not find he substantially caused her death. The Court of Appeal disagreed. In general, Slatter wrote, “a substantial contribution to the cause of death will be found in an accused’s physical involvement, but ‘there will be instances where an accused could well be the substantial cause of the death without physically causing it.’
“Active participation in controlling a victim’s movements, preventing their escape or resistance during a killing, can constitute the ‘substantial cause’ required for constructive first degree murder,” Slatter continued.
Prosecutors said the second error the trial court made was concluding that several of Underwood’s statements before the killing – including that the group needed to “get rid of” Duperron – did not establish that he deliberately planned to kill Duperron.
The appeals court agreed the trial court erroneously imposed “a requirement that, for a murder to be ‘planned’, all the steps leading to that end needed to be detailed and decided.”
However, in response to Underwood’s appeal, Slatter wrote that the trial court’s reasoning for rejecting a witness’ evidence “was considered and reasoned.”
The court additionally rejected Underwood’s argument that the trial judge erred when he found Underwood aided and abetted another defendant in the murder – even though the judge did not explicitly determine the second defendant killed Duperron. The trial judge made it clear “he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt” that the second defendant’s conduct significantly contributed to Duperron’s death, Slatter said.
Underwood’s lawyer, Peter Sankoff of Sankoff Criminal Law, told Canadian Lawyer that his client had not authorized him to comment on the case.
The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service declined to comment.
