The Justice Building on Queen Street in Fredericton. (Image: Brad Perry)
Crown prosecutors say they will not appeal the jury’s verdict in the Matthew Vincent Raymond murder trial.
Public Prosecutions Service of New Brunswick announced their decision in a statement released Tuesday.
“After a thorough review, Public Prosecutions Service of New Brunswick has made the difficult decision not to appeal the jury’s verdict in that there is no reasonable prospect of success on appeal,” Pierre Roussel, director of Public Prosecutions for the Office of the Attorney General, said in the statement.
“In the circumstances of this case, it is not sufficient for the Crown to simply identify an error of law committed at trial. Rather, the Crown must identify an error of law that had a material impact on the jury’s verdict.”
Raymond was charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the 2018 shooting deaths of Donnie Robichaud, Bobbie Lee Wright, and Fredericton police constables Sara Burns and Robb Costello.
A jury found him not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder last month following a trial.
While Raymond admitted to the shootings, the issue at trial was whether his mental disorder allowed him to understood the nature of his actions and knew they were wrong.
Roussel said Raymond presented direct, circumstantial and expert evidence to support his claim that he was not criminally responsible.
“In light of the jury’s verdict, the jury accepted that, based on the evidence, Raymond had established that he was not criminally responsible,” he said.
Roussell said while this was an extremely tragic event, the Crown’s office must respect the jury’s verdict.
Raymond is now under the jurisdiction of the New Brunswick Review Board and will be detained indefinitely.
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