VANCOUVER — Convicted murderer Roy Fraser has lost an appeal of his first- and second-degree murder convictions for two slayings near Kamloops, B.C.
In a unanimous decision, the B.C. Court of Appeal has rejected Fraser's arguments that the trial judge made several legal errors.
The appeal court ruling upholds the original charge to the jury, finding no grounds for a defence submission that the trial judge should have ordered acquittal on the first-degree murder charge.
Instead, B.C.'s top court noted evidence allowed the jury to infer Fraser deliberately shot 31-year-old Damien Marks in 2009 as Marks escaped after Fraser shot another man.
The bodies of Marks and Ken Yaretz Jr., who the court case was told was an associate of the Independent Soldiers gang, were found in a shallow grave on Fraser's rural property northeast of Kamloops, one month after they disappeared.
In 2013, Fraser received a mandatory 25-year term for the murder of Marks and a 10-year concurrent term for the slaying of Yaretz.
The Canadian Press
