B.C. Crown appeals second-degree murder conviction to Supreme Court of Canada

VICTORIA – The Crown says it will ask Canada’s top court to restore the first-degree murder conviction against a man found guilty of stabbing and shooting a Vancouver man during a botched robbery over an engagement ring.

In February 2013, Michael Newman was convicted of the first-degree murder of Mark Rozen who nine years earlier advertised a diamond engagement ring in a newspaper.

The court heard Rozen was found dead in his apartment in the city’s West End in January 2004, and an autopsy found four gunshot and multiple stab wounds on his body.

Newman appealed and on May 28, B.C.’s highest court overturned the conviction in a 2-1 decision and substituted the second-degree murder conviction.

The province’s Criminal Justice Branch says it has the right to appeal because one judge on the panel dissented, and the Crown can reasonably argue the majority made an error and the public interest is at stake.

The branch says it will ask the Supreme Court of Canada to restore the first-degree conviction during a future date that has yet to be set.