CALGARY — A new trial has been ordered for man convicted of killing a college student when a pickup truck rammed a group of people outside a bar in west-central Alberta.
Jeffrey Leinen of Calgary was convicted in December 2011 of second-degree murder and aggravated assault in a crash outside the Texas Mickey Bar in Olds.
He was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the death of Nicholas Baier, an 18-year-old student at Olds College, and the injuring of a second student.
Witnesses testified at Leinen’s trial that he had been kicked out of the bar for fighting.
Defence lawyer Jennifer Ruttan argued at an Alberta Court of Appeal hearing in April whether the judge’s charge to the jury properly accounted for the possibility that the October 2010 crash was an accident.
In a two-to-one decision, the high court has ordered a new trial, stating that the judge in the original case failed to properly instruct the jury on the legal significance of the panic attack defence.