N.S. court reserves decision on Christian Clyke’s murder appeal

Christian Enang Clyke is escorted by sheriffs into Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. (Callum Smith/CTV News Atlantic)

A panel of Nova Scotia Court of Appeal justices have reserved their decision on Christian Enang Clyke’s murder appeal.

Crown, defence and former defence lawyers all made submissions to the justices on Thursday, the second consecutive day of the hearing.

Clyke was found guilty of second-degree murder and, in May 2019, received a life sentence with no chance of parole for 12 years for the 2011 killing of Angela Patricia Hall.

The sentence was a joint recommendation.

Clyke and another person went to Hall’s Dartmouth apartment on April 29, 2011, to purchase marijuana.

According to the decision, a struggle ensued and Hall was stabbed and was lying on the floor in the hallway outside of her unit when Clyke shot her once through the back with a handgun he had brought with him.

“It is unclear why Mr. Clyke had armed himself with a loaded handgun at the time of the intended drug purchase,” Justice Peter Rosinski found. “However, I am satisfied that there is no reason to believe that Ms. Hall was in any way a threat to Mr. Clyke and his accomplice.

“His killing of her was impulsive, cowardly and cold-blooded.”

Hall, 38, was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead as a result of a single gunshot wound.

While Clyke was in jail on unrelated charges five years later, in November 2016 he told police he wanted to confess to his involvement in a previous incident.

Speaking to police that day, Clyke said he fatally shot Hall.

Jonathan Hughes, Clyke’s former defence lawyer, argued the statements to police should’ve been thrown out, suggesting his client was experiencing a psychotic episode – and that he didn’t have an “operating mind” at the time.

But Rosinski ultimately ruled the statements were admissible.

Clyke appealed the conviction, before abandoning it, then asked for it to be reopened in 2022.

The hearing resumed on Wednesday.

Clyke, with new lawyers, argues there was a miscarriage of justice as the result of “ineffective assistance of trial counsel.”

He also sought the appeal on a second ground, arguing his Charter of Rights and Freedoms was breached due to a failure of the Crown to disclose an audio recording of one of his police statements.

He is seeking to have his conviction thrown out and get a new trial ordered on the second-degree murder charge.

It’s not clear when the judges will decide the case.

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