Nunavut appeal court orders new trial for Daniel Hodgson

An Iqaluit man acquitted of second-degree murder will face a new trial because the judge didn’t fully assess the argument of self-defence and she didn’t properly consider the danger of a chokehold, Nunavut’s appeal court has ruled.

Daniel Hodgson was charged with second-degree murder for the choking death of Bradley Winsor in Iqaluit in 2017.

“When considering the defence of self-defence in this matter, the trial judge did not assess the respondent’s actions in considering what a reasonable person would have done in like circumstances,” the appeal panel wrote.

Judges Frederica Schutz, Edith Campbell and Dawn Pentelechuk, who sit on Nunavut’s Court of Appeal, issued their decision to the media Tuesday afternoon.

Crown lawyers appealed Hodgson’s acquittal in June last year.

At the 2021 trial, witnesses said Winsor was getting aggressive at a house party in Apex and pushed a man. Hodgson testified he thought Winsor was going to hit a woman and grabbed him.

Winsor’s elbow hit Hodgson on the head, and Hodgson put him in a chokehold.

They both fell to the ground and Hodgson held on until Winsor started turning blue.

Nunavut judge Susan Charlesworth, who presided over Hodgson’s trial, found Hodgson acted in self defence when he choked Winsor and did not intend to kill him.

“This was a party that suddenly took an unpleasant turn. Mr. Hodgson was asked to intervene, and he did what he could to control Mr. Winsor,” Charlesworth wrote in her 2021 ruling.

“The chokehold lasted a fairly short period of time and everyone was surprised that Mr. Winsor was not responsive after.”

The appeal panel took issue with Charlesworth’s ruling, writing that while the Crown submitted evidence that a chokehold is “an inherently dangerous act,” Charlesworth did not address this in her ruling.

The appeal judges wrote that Charlesworth appeared to accept that a chokehold was a “regular ‘calm down’ method” or a “known calm down move.”

“The trial judge did not assess this evidence with respect to what the respondent believed or intended considering the dangerousness of squeezing Mr. Winsor’s neck to the point of unconsciousness, or the possible recklessness of his actions,” they wrote.

“Blocking someone’s airway is always an act which is more than merely transient or trifling in nature,” the appeal judges wrote.

A new trial date for Hodgson has not yet been set.