THUNDER BAY -- The Ontario Court of Appeal has dismissed an application to overturn the first-degree murder conviction of Michael Earl Kelly of Thunder Bay.
Kelly—now 70 years old—was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for the death of his common-law spouse, Judith Thibault.
Before the Court of Appeal last fall, Kelly's lawyer argued that his conviction was based on a confession that was the product of a "Mr. Big" police operation that should never have been admitted. In a Mr. Big sting, undercover officers pose as criminals to elicit confessions from suspects.
Thibault was reported missing by Kelly in November, 2000.
Four years later, a survey party found her remains near the Wolf Lake Road in the Dorion area.
An autopsy showed she had died from a .22 calibre bullet wound in the back of her head.
No direct forensic evidence or witnesses linked Kelly to the murder, but police considered him the primary suspect.
In 2009, police arrested him after undercover officers drew a confession by convincing Kelly that a terminally ill man was willing to take the fall for Thibault's death. In order to confess, they said, the man would need details from Kelly as to how the murder was committed.
In return, the officers promised, Kelly would receive the proceeds of a life insurance policy on Thibault worth several hundred thousand dollars. They said he would never receive the payout until he was cleared of suspicion.
At his trial, Kelly's lawyer sought unsuccessfully to have the confession excluded on the basis that the way the police induced him to talk was a form of Mr. Big operation that would "shock the conscience" of the community. The trial judge noted that the police conduct had involved no violence or threats of violence.
In a decision released on July 26, the Court of Appeal said it had taken into account stricter rules that were imposed in 2014 by the Supreme Court of Canada on the use of Mr. Big confessions, and found no error by the trial judge in admitting Kelly's confession.
