Convicted killer Cody Legebokoff's appeal dismissed

The B.C. Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal from convicted killer Cody Legebokoff, ruling there was no miscarriage of justice at his 2014 trial.

Legebokoff had argued that the trial judge revealed a bias against the defence team in his reasons for denying a pre-trialapplication to change the venue of his first-degree murder trialfrom Prince George to Vancouver.

The reasons for the denial were released after conviction.

But Legebokoffclaimed that had he known "the judge's views prior to the conclusion of the trial, then he might have sought legal advice that could have led him to retain new counsel."

The comments in question concerned the way defence crafted anargument that extensive pre-trial publicity made it impossible for Legebokoff to receive a fair trial in Prince George.

The defence lawyers cited stories which ran on CNN and 48 Hours. The trial judge faultedthem for failing to note that both were programs which could be seen throughout British Columbia.

In rejecting Legebokoff's bid for a new trial, the threeappeal court justices disagreed with the original trial court judge's assessment of defence conduct, finding his criticism"entirely without merit".

That's in part because most people know how widelyCNN and 48 Hours broadcast.

But also because the defence wasn't claiming the shows couldn't be seen all over B.C. rather that"the risk of prejudiceto a fair trial was greater in Prince George than it would be in a larger urban center like Vancouver."

Regardless,theappeal courtfound"there is no suggestion that the judge's views affected the manner in which he conducted the trial."

The judges said a well-informed reasonable person would alsoknow the trial judge wasn't required to express his views earlier and that Legebokoff was competently represented throughout the trial.

The 24-year-oldwas sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 25 years on four counts of first-degree murder in September, 2014.

He was convicted in the 2009 and 2010 murders of Loren Donn Leslie, Jill StaceyStuchenko, Cynthia FrancesMaas and Natasha Lynn Montgomery.