The B.C. Court of Appeal has reduced a conviction of second-degree murder to manslaughter for a Granisle man found guilty of stabbing his father to death.
In a decision issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel agreed with defence counsel that the judge who heard the trial for Robert Arthur Vernon Reeves erred by instructing the jury it could not raise reasonable doubt due to any mental disorder because no evidence from an expert witness was heard on the matter.
While Reeves' identity as the killer was established, intent for his action was not, the panel found, and substituted a verdict of manslaughter. Sentencing for Reeves will be decided in B.C. Supreme Court.
Reeves has been serving a life sentence without eligibility to apply for parole for 10 years on the conviction, reached in June 2015 following a B.C. Supreme Court trial in Prince George.
In deciding on the sentence, Justice Lance Bernard had taken into account the possibility Reeves is schizophrenic. Although he's never been formally diagnosed with the disorder, his mother has been diagnosed with the ailment.
The outcome is in relation the April 2009 death of Reeves' father, Brian Fraser Baker, in the small community 326 kilometres west of Prince George.
