Convicted serial killer Cody Legebokoff has been granted an extension which will allow a February 2015 appeal of his convictions to proceed.
The B.C. Court of Appeal granted the extension on August 6. Normally the time limit for an appeal would be 30 days from his conviction, which occurred on September 16, 2014. However, Legebokoff’s counsel asked for leniency, and was allowed to file an appeal on February 12 of this year.
Legebokoff’s lawyers have cited two miscarriages of justice as the basis for the appeal of his four life sentences. One related to “the content and the date of release of the ruling on the change of venue application,” they wrote, while the other concerned “a violation of the appellant’s Charter right to be represented by counsel of his choice throughout the proceedings.”
The twenty-five-year old former resident of Fort St. James was sentenced to life in prison without eligibility for parole for 25 years for the first degree murders of Stacey Stuchenko (35), Natasha Montgomery (24), Cynthia Maas (35), and Loren Leslie (15) in and around Prince George in 2009 and 2010.
Doug Leslie, Loren’s father, calls Legebokoff a “narcissist and sociopath” and believes the appeal is an attempt to hurt people once more. He also calls the move a “last ditch effort”, and believes that Legebokoff will never be released.
However, he says that bringing the case back into the public eye will help serve as a reminder and warning that there are more people like Legebokoff out there. “On a positive note, that’s the way you gotta look at it.”
Barbara Roden