By Matt Nemeth

Time runs out for Crown to reactivate Connie Oakes murder case

Apr 28, 2017 | 5:52 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Time has run out to prosecute Connie Oakes in the 2011 murder of Casey Armstrong, as a year ago today Oakes’ second-degree murder charge was stayed leaving the Crown 12 months to reactivate the charges.

“This particular case is no longer before the Courts,” confirmed Katherine Thompson with Alberta’s Justice and Solicitor General’s office Friday morning.

“It is always within a Crown’s discretion when to proceed or re-commence a case and when not to,” she continued. “The Crown must have a reasonable likelihood of conviction and feel it is in the public interest to proceed — in every case.”

After Oakes’ charge was stayed Medicine Hat police re-opened the investigation into Armstrong’s death and they say the file is now being reviewed by the Lethbridge police department.

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“We just want to exercise or due diligence, allow them to go through the file to ensure that there’s no stone that hasn’t been turned over, we didn’t miss any avenues, etc.,” says inspector Tim McGough. “We just want to make sure that it’s complete and that there’s no other avenues that we need to go down.”

Police say there’s no timeline yet for when the review will be complete nor are they revealing whether or not any other suspects in Armstrong’s death are being considered, but McGough admits a third party review is not something that’s usually done.

“Because of the seriousness of the offence, the homicide in itself, we want to ensure that we’ve basically done a complete and thorough investigation and that we didn’t miss anything.”

Found guilty of second-degree murder in 2011, the case against Oakes unravelled when her co-accused Wendy Scott recanted her testimony that Oakes was the one who killed Armstrong. It was the only testimony given in the trial.

McGough says a file like the one they now have Lethbridge police looking over is multi-layered, simply due to its nature.

“It is indeed a time consuming and complicated file and we’re still here several years later, still dealing with the same effects, the same crime.”

Oakes recently pled guilty to aggravated assault after stabbing a man in Saskatchewan. She faces up to 14 years in prison and is set to be sentenced on June 7th.