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Obese man convicted of crushing wife to death wins new trial
Thu Nov 6, 3:03 PM
OTTAWA (AFP) - A Canadian man who weighs 380 pounds (172 kilograms) will face a new trial for crushing his wife to death, local media said Thursday.
The Ontario Court of Appeal overturned Peter Mathisen's 2005 murder conviction and ordered a new trial, saying the trial judge failed to properly instruct the jury about whether the death may have been accidental.
According the daily Toronto Star, Mathisen and his wife got into a brawl after he confronted her about an affair and accused her of poisoning him.
The prosecution alleged she died of strangulation, while a defense expert testified she was likely crushed to death. Mathisen said in court he did not realize his knee was pressed against her chest.
Justice John Laskin wrote in the original decision the victim died because Mathisen either "put his knee on his wife's chest and kept it there" or "continually sat on his wife's chest."
"The pivotal question is whether ... he did so unintentionally," the judge concluded.
