SASKATCHEWAN – One judge at Saskatchewan's highest court has said that there should be a new trial for a man convicted of beating his best friend Christopher Lee Durocher to death. But two other judges disagreed on the three-judge panel so the appeal was dismissed.
In October 2018, 30-year-old Ryan David Clark was found guilty of second-degree murder in Durocher’s death and sentenced to life in prison. Durocher's body was found by police Oct. 2, 2016, inside his trailer on his parent's Christopher Lake acreage.
“The jury charge did not adequately equip jurors to deal with the frailties of the in-court eyewitness identification evidence in this case," ruled Justice Robert Leurer. "For this reason, I would allow Mr. Clark’s appeal and order a new trial."
Justice Leurer ruled that the charge given to the jury didn’t fulfill the essential function of alerting jurors that Richard William’s testimony had limited value for the purpose of identifying Durocher’s assailant and his in-court identification had no evidentiary value at all.
Justice Leurer ruled that the trial judge’s charge to the jury didn’t inform jurors of the problematic nature of Holmgren’s in-court identification of Clark and that it would be dangerous to attribute to Holmgren’s in-court identification of Clark any degree of certainty greater than what she had communicated to police on Oct. 2, 2016.
Justice Jerome Tholl and Justice Ralph Ottenbreit, however, disagreed.
The night before the murder
A week before Durocher’s murder, he had reconnected with Richard Williams, a former high school friend who was in an on-again and off-again relationship with Heather Holmgrem.
Court heard that on the night before Durocher was murdered, he, along with Williams and Holmgren were with him at the Christopher Lake acreage after spending the day together. They each arrived in their own vehicles.
Both Williams and Holmgren testified that another man arrived at the acreage later in the evening of Oct. 1, 2016, and he was introduced as Durocher’s best friend. Before that day, neither Williams nor Holmgren met Clark. They saw him several times at the acreage over an undetermined amount of time that may have been up to an hour.
According to court documents, Holmgren eventually became angry enough at Holmgren and the man she just met, that she wanted to leave. Both the man and Williams had to move their vehicles so Holmgren could drive away. Holmgren testified that the man was driving a dark van. Clark’s girlfriend testified at the 2018 trial that he was wasn’t home that evening at the time in question and was driving her van, which matched the broad description.
Holmgren drove away but soon returned because she had forgotten her cigarettes in William’s truck. She retrieved them and then drove away from the acreage.
Williams testified that after Holmgren drove away, he saw the man punch Durocher once by the campfire with enough force to knock him down to his hands and knees. He testified that he heard the assailant say, “Sh—‘s really going to get real before he punched Durocher, who responded, “Why are you doing this, man,” after he fell to the ground.
Williams testified that he was afraid and left in his vehicle, driving to where Holmgren was parked a short distance away where she stopped to text her son. He got there so fast after she left that she didn’t even have time to send the text to her son. She estimated that it was less than two minutes.
Court heard that Williams told her what he saw happen and Holmgren wanted to go back to the trailer, armed with crowbars from her van and help Durocher. Williams, however, convinced her it was too dangerous and they drove away in their own vehicles.
They eventually arrived at a local bar, and after discussing the events with the bartender, the bartender called Durocher’s mother. She called 911. Holmgren testified that she didn’t want to call the police because she didn’t want to get Durocher and Williams into trouble because there was stolen property at the acreage.
The RCMP went to the acreage after dealing with a different high priority call and all was quiet with no one in sight. They saw what appeared to be a bloodstain on the ground and drag marks leading to a trailer where Durocher lived. They found his body in the trailer. Durocher died from blunt force trauma to the head, caused by at least three to five significant physical impacts, court heard.
Williams and Holmgren unable to identify assailant to police
The next day, the police interviewed Williams and Holmgren but they couldn’t provide police with a name of the man at the acreage they met, court heard.
Later, Williams told Holmgren that the guy’s name was Ryan even though he couldn’t provide that name to police when they interviewed him.
Afterwards, Holmgren went on Facebook and searched for local people named Ryan. She didn’t recognize any of them so she gained access to Durocher’s Facebook page and identified Clark from a photograph she found on his page and called the RCMP right away with that information.
Justice Tholl ruled that the trial judge didn’t give the jury specific cautions about the evidence of Williams and Holmgren.
“The judge did not tell the jury, in the strongest terms, that it was required to approach Mr. Williams’ in-court identification evidence with extreme caution and explain to it why this is the case. The judge did not forcefully tell the jury that it could give virtually no weight to Mr. Williams’ in-court identification of Mr. Clark as the man he saw assault Mr. Durocher. The judge also did not caution the jury at all about Ms. Holmgren’s in-dock identification or instruct the jury that it would be very dangerous to attribute to Ms. Holmgren’s in-court identification of Mr. Clark any degree of certainty greater than what she had communicated to police on October 2, 2016."
Story updated to say that one judge wanted a new trial ordered and two judges disagreed.
