Saskatchewan’s top court dismisses appeal of murder conviction

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal of a man convicted of first-degree murder in the 2011 death of Carol King.

Joseph David Caissie was found guilty in January 2019 of killing King, who went missing in August 2011 from her farm near Herschel. Her car subsequently was found in a slough and her body was found in a farmyard 10 kilometres north of the community.

Caissie’s appeal was heard this past Jan. 10. The written decision of the Court of Appeal was released Thursday.

In it, Justice Ralph Ottenbreit wrote Caissie’s appeal was based in part on his belief that the judge erred in admitting confessions and misapprehended evidence. Ottenbreit — whose decision was concurred with by justices Jerome Tholl and Peter Whitmore — disagreed and dismissed the appeal.

Caissie was questioned multiple times after King disappeared, but police didn’t charge him or anyone else and the case went cold in 2012.

Caissie was arrested in July 2016 after a months-long police sting operation. In Ottenbreit’s decision, it was revealed Caissie admitted to killing King in six separate conversations with undercover officers during that operation.

In January of 2019, Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Richard Danyliuk found Caissie guilty and sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, calculated from the date of his 2016 arrest.

He was also given a five-year sentence for offering an indignity to a body, which runs at the same time as the murder sentence.

Because his offence was committed before Dec. 2, 2011, Caissie can apply after serving 15 years to have his parole ineligibility period shortened from the mandatory 25 years.