Law360 Canada ( December 13, 2021, 9:12 AM EST) -- Appeal by the accused from conviction for manslaughter. The victim, 20, and the appellant, then 36, were in a relationship prior to her death. The victim’s body was found in a field beaten to death. The Crown’s case was circumstantial, including expert evidence and evidence of post-death conduct by the appellant. Throughout, the appellant insisted someone else killed the victim. The appellant’s DNA was found under the victim’s fingernails. The victim’s blood was found on a jacket left at the scene by the appellant. The trial judge concluded that the combination of the appellant’s DNA linking him to the scene and to the victim, his relationship with her and some evidence of animus toward her and the appellant’s post offence conduct supported the only reasonable conclusion that the appellant was the assailant. The appeal focused upon the proposed admission of fresh evidence concerning evidence of the appellant’s psychological circumstances said to have implications for the trial judge’s assessment of the appellant’s evidence at trial and his conduct around and after the time of the victim’s death. This evidence was also said to contradict the Crown expert evidence as to blood spatter pattern and DNA typing and showed the victim lived a risky lifestyle and could therefore have been killed by some unknown third party with some unknown motive and rationale. . . .