I feel so much for this family. He was a wonderful Dr to my little ones when they were born. So patient and kind. Sad to know he died with this deep pain after the killing of his wife. This is way too close to home.
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| Barrie Ontario's Mimi Khonsari was kidnapped and murdered in May 2004. |
A man who was formerly convicted in the brutal murder of Mimi Khonsari eight years ago made a brief appearance in court Friday in preparation for a new trial.
Clare Spiers, 50, who has lived in Barrie, Toronto and New York, was sentenced to life in prison after a jury found him guilty in 2008.
But three years into his life sentence, the Court of Appeal for Ontario overturned the verdict and ruled he has the right to a new trial after it found the Crown had improperly vetted the jury.
That means that Spiers is now presumed innocent and he has a fresh start with a new trial.
In court, Spiers stood in handcuffs and looked around the court.
It is not known yet whether his lawyer will make an application for a bail hearing.
He is charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping of Khonsari, 60, who was the wife of a prominent Barrie doctor, Homa Khonsari, who recently died.
Spiers is also charged with the kidnapping of Khonsari’s infant grandchild, who was with her on the day she was murdered.
Khonsari’s strangled and stabbed body was found in a wooded area on Ridge Road, north of Barrie, on May 21, 2004. That same day the grandchild was found alive in Khonsari’s car, which was abandoned in a parking lot near the Kozlov mall.
It was not until seven months later that police announced the arrest of Spiers, a door-to-door home renovations salesman who was living on Hickling Trail in Barrie. At the time of his arrest, police said Spiers was not known to the family and that Khonsari’s killing was a random act.
Following his conviction, Spiers’ lawyer took the case to Ontario’s high court, arguing his verdict might have been different if the Crown hadn’t vetted the jury in its favour by using police resources to weed out disreputable people who could possibly be unsympathetic to the Crown’s case.
The high court agreed that, while there was no malicious intent, the information received by the Crown shaped the jury differently than it would have been able to otherwise.
“I conclude that the well-informed and reasonable person would perceive the jury selection process in this case to be unfair,” wrote the appeals court in its recent ruling. “There can be no doubt that the public and an accused would view with grave suspicion a jury selection process that unfairly favours the Crown.”
Spiers will be held at the Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene while awaiting his new trial.
He is scheduled to be back in court for a pretrial hearing on May 22. By Tracy McLaughlin, Special to QMI AGENCY
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