A man convicted of second-degree murder in the savage beating of David Mitchell with an aluminum baseball bat in a Whalley crack shack in 2006 has lost an appeal of his conviction.
Mitchell, 25, was attacked inside a house in the 11000-block of Ravine Road in Whalley on Oct, 25th of that year and died two days later in hospital from blunt force head injuries.
Khalid Damien Arnaout was convicted by a jury in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster and appealed his conviction on the grounds that the trial judge, Justice Arne Silverman, failed to adequately instruct the jury on issues of identity and intent.
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But Justice Daphne Smith, of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia, dismissed Arnaout’s appeal with Justices Mary Newbury and David Harris concurring.
“I find no error of law in the extent of the judge’s review of the evidence with the jury on the issue of the assailant’s identity,” Smith said in her Aug. 2nd reasons for judgment.
“I find no error of law in the extent to which the judge reviewed the evidence for the jury on the issue of intent.”
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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