Nunavut court loses evidence in murder conviction appeal

Convicted killer Bruce Kayaitok is appealing his second degree murder conviction for the 2008 death of his common law spouse, but Nunavut court services lost all exhibits related to his trial, hampering the appeal process. (FILE PHOTO)

A Kugaaruk man convicted in 2013 by the Nunavut Court of Justice for second-degree murder, after a trial, for the brutal 2008 killing of his common-law wife has appealed his conviction and sentence of life imprisonment.

But Nunavut’s court services has lost all exhibits from that trial — and that’s holding up the appeal process.

Justice Earl Johnson convicted Bruce Kayaitok, 38, in 2013 of killing his spouse, Belinda Tootiak, in their shared home in 2008 by stabbing her twice in the lower abdomen with the broken end of a mop handle.

Kayaitok plunged the jagged wooden shaft more than six inches into Tootiak, 30 at the time of her death, severing a major artery, the court heard during Kayaitok’s trial in Iqaluit.

Tootiak bled to death minutes later with the couple’s two children in the house, the court heard.

Johnson sentenced Kayaitok in 2014 to life in prison—an automatic sentence for a conviction of second-degree murder — and no chance of parole for 14 years.

Kayoitok had pleaded at trial to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Kayaitok filed a notice of appeal with the Nunavut court on May 23, 2014, saying Johnson made four mistakes:

• by admitting into evidence hearsay that didn’t meet a threshold test of reliability;

• by relying on that hearsay as truth;

• by finding, without expert testimony, that Kayoitok had the necessary intent to be convicted of second-degree murder; and,

• by issuing a sentence that included no chance of parole for 14 years.

Kayaitok then obtained a defence lawyer, James Morton, who filed additional grounds for the appeal with the Nunavut court on May 2, 2015.

Morton, on behalf of his client, said Johnson made additional mistakes:

• by relying on case law that the Nunavut Court of Appeal had already overturned;

• by inferring that Kayaitok formed the intent necessary for second-degree murder based on Kayaitok’s “bad character”; and,

• by imposing an “elevated parole ineligibility.”

But in an Iqaluit courtroom Nov. 10, Justice Robert Kilpatrick said the Nunavut Court of Appeal is concerned with the slow movement of appeals through the court system.

“And, unfortunately, court services seems to have misplaced [Kayaitok’s] trial exhibits in the original murder trial. Counsels are now busy trying to reconstruct the record, if you will, from what they can recall of matters being filed,” an embarrassed Kilpatrick said.

Hopefully lawyers can agree on what those exhibits are and move the process along quickly, Kilpatrick said.

“On behalf of the judiciary, I express profound regret at any resulting delay caused by this unfortunate incident downstairs in the registry.”

Kayaitok appeared before Kilpatrick Nov. 10 via video-conference from the Fenbrook Institution in Gravenhurt, Ont., but only the top of Kayaitok’s head was visible for most of his short appearance.

Kilpatrick scheduled Kayaitok’s appeal to be addressed again on March 9, 2016.

By that time, Kilpatrick said he hopes the necessary documents are filed to enable the court of appeal to set a hearing date for Kayaitok’s appeal.