Kamloops man demands new trial, in “limbo” after murder conviction overturned

Gerald Klassen is no longer behind bars, but the spectre of guilt still hangs over him as he petitions a BC court for another trial.

The Kamloops man was convicted in 1995 for killing Julie McLeod in a decision later described by Canada’s justice minister as “likely” a miscarriage of justice. The conviction was overturned, but he has never been acquitted.

In 2022, the federal government ordered Klassen to be tried again, but the BC Prosecution Service stayed the charge a year later, leaving Klassen in “limbo,” according to a petition filed June 29 in BC Supreme Court.

In the petition, he’s asking a BC judge to review the province’s “failure to comply” with then-justice minister David Lametti’s 2022 order and to compel a new trial as Klassen seeks to clear his name.

“For the duration of the stay, and after its expiry, the effect was to communicate that he may face prosecution again, and place his innocence in question,” Klassen’s petition to the court reads.

A stay of proceedings effectively drops the criminal charge and it comes with a one-year time limit to restart court proceedings. In this case, it expired in 2024, but he said that “did nothing” to fix the situation.

“While the spectre of re-prosecution was diminished with the expiry of the stay, (Klassen) was left to live with the permanent public impression that he was not exonerated at all,” his petition reads. “He experienced and continues to face anxiety, frustration, mistrust and grief at both the fact that he could somehow succeed in the ministerial review process to establish his innocence, but not be permitted to actually do so in the end.”

McLeod’s body was found partially clothed at a Nicola Lake boat launch in December 1993, and Klassen was later charged with first-degree murder. He was convicted in 1995 after the Crown argued he had both beat and sexually assaulted McLeod, then left her body near the lake.

Klassen’s account was that they went to the lake together, but they had an argument and she refused a ride home. He maintained his innocence for decades, asserting that McLeod was fully clothed and conscious when he left.

Klassen has also filed a lawsuit against the BC government after spending 26 years behind bars for a likely wrongful conviction.

He failed his efforts to appeal the conviction to the BC Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada, only to be released in 2020 pending a ministerial review after the UBC Innocence Project took on the file.

Despite his release, Klassen lives in poverty and struggles to maintain employment, while facing stigma and judgement from people who believe he killed McLeod.

BC Prosecutors have since said they lacked evidence to support a conviction. When Klassen filed a civil claim for wrongful conviction, he accused the province of denying a second trial to avoid public embarrassment and accountability.

The BC Attorney General’s office has not responded in court to Klassen’s petition.