Alberta man convicted of sex attack on Indigenous woman loses bid for mistrial
EDMONTON — An Alberta man convicted of the brutal sex attack of an Indigenous woman whom the Crown had jailed to ensure her testimony has lost a bid for a mistrial.
Lance David Blanchard was found guilty in December of aggravated sexual assault, aggravated assault, kidnapping, unlawful confinement, possession of a weapon and making a death threat in the 2014 attack.
The victim, a 28-year-old homeless woman, died in 2015 in an unrelated shooting.
The mistrial application focused on new evidence from Wayne Wilcox, an Edmonton Remand Centre inmate who said the woman was a hard-drug addict and made a living by robbing people.