Supreme Court of Canada upholds decision in bathtub murder conspiracy

OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the conspiracy conviction of a young man who helped two teenaged girls drown their alcoholic mother in a bathtub.

A lower court convicted the man — whose name is protected under Canada’s youth laws — of conspiracy to commit murder for his role in the 2003 death of his girlfriend’s mother.

The court heard he suggested the sisters ply their mother with Tylenol 3 and agreed to help them come up with an alibi after the murder.

Ontario’s appeals court upheld the conspiracy to commit murder conviction, and today in a unanimous decision the Supreme Court did the same.

The high court was essentially asked to determine the stage at which someone becomes part of a conspiracy.

The justices opted for a narrow definition, whereby someone becomes part of a conspiracy if they help others in the act of agreeing to commit a crime.