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Airdrie killer Michael Roebuck didn’t have to weigh the professionals and cons of his determination to fatally shoot his neighbour to be convicted of first-degree homicide, a prosecutor mentioned Thursday.
However the lawyer for Roebuck argued his actions in capturing Daniel MacDonald in broad daylight on the sufferer’s driveway was indicative of a scarcity of deliberation earlier than he acted.
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Defence counsel Kelsey Sitar requested an Alberta Courtroom of Enchantment panel to both order a retrial for Roebuck, or substitute a conviction of second-degree homicide within the case.
Crown prosecutor Rajbir Dhillon was peppered with questions by Justice Jo’Anne Strekaf on how trial Justice Michele Hollins was in a position to conclude MacDonald’s demise was the results of planning and deliberation by the killer.
“What we have now is an 11-minute state of affairs triggered by a struggle,” Strekaf mentioned, of fisticuffs between Roebuck and MacDonald at an Airdrie fuel station not removed from the place their properties have been which precipitated the deadly capturing.
“The place can we discover that he put his thoughts to the results?” she requested.
“There’s six witnesses … he offers no consideration to the consequence of ‘what if I get caught.’”
However Dhillon mentioned Hollins wasn’t required to find out if Roebuck put his thoughts to what would happen after he killed MacDonald.
“It doesn’t have to be a value/profit evaluation,” he advised the three-member attraction panel.
“You may infer from the totality of what he did that he did think about and he did deliberate on this plan,” Dhillon mentioned.
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“You may infer he deliberated on his plan and it doesn’t matter if it’s 11 minutes or it’s an hour.”
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Roebuck and MacDonald, who lived doorways aside on an Airdrie cul-de-sac, have been former associates and enterprise companions who had a falling out.
On the afternoon of Sept. 7, 2019, the 2 males bumped into one another in a close-by fuel station car parking zone and acquired right into a struggle.
As Roebuck drove away afterwards he yelled “I’ll see you at residence,” and when he acquired to his residence he went to his basement, retrieved and loaded a shotgun after which waited in his storage till MacDonald arrived residence.
The offender then raced to the sufferer’s driveway and shot him as soon as within the chest and as soon as within the again.
In her written submissions, Sitar mentioned Hollins failed to think about indicators of Roebuck weighing the probably advantages and downsides of finishing up his plan to shoot MacDonald, equivalent to whether or not he had a getaway plan, or took steps to reduce or remove witnesses.
The attraction judges reserved their ruling.
KMartin@postmedia.com
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