deadmonton 2005 - nina courtepatte - briscoe-laboucan trial - april 19th, 2007

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Nina Louise Courtepatte, 13, died from blunt force trauma and aggravated sexual assault on April 3rd, 2005.


Charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault were Michael Erin Briscoe, now 36, Joseph Wesley Laboucan, now 21, and three teens not identified by provision of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.


On March 23rd, 2007 Joseph Laboucan was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Michael Briscoe was acquitted.


<< april 13th, 2007 | briscoe-laboucan trial



Six days after the Crown announced its appeal of Michael Briscoe's acquittal, the other adult charged with the death of Nina Courtepatte filed his own appeal.


Joseph Laboucan filed his papers with the Alberta Court of Appeal and asked they grant him a new trial.


Laboucan is claiming Justice Brian Burrows committed a series of errors in law.


"This is a perverse finding of fact," said Laboucan in the notice.


In his appeal, Laboucan listed several perceived errors, including that


  • Burrows relied on the evidence Laboucan himself gave when he took the stand but did not believe the evidence of Laboucan's mother and sister,
  • Burrows believed some of what the witnesses said about Laboucan but disbelieved those same witnesses about Briscoe,
  • Laboucan's statements to police were admitted as voluntary declarations rather than contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

On the third point, Laboucan claimed Burrows was wrong to rule his statements in his two videotaped police interviews as "voluntary" and therefore admissible.


In his appeal, Laboucan stated that if a new trial was ordered, he would want that trial to be by judge and jury rather than by judge alone.


At last word (late June 2007) Laboucan was housed in the basement of the Edmonton Institution's basement segregation unit, waiting for a cell upstairs.



The trial continues.



A list of persons named in this case can be found at the bottom of the main Briscoe-Laboucan trial page.