Convicted husband and wife duo, both found guilty of first-degree murder of Ryan Lane, appealed their murder convictions last week.
Sheena Cuthill, 30, husband Timothy Rempel, 31, and brother Wilhelm Rempel, 42, were all convicted in April – for the killing of former Cochranite Lane – and all were sentenced to 25 years in prison with no chance of parole.
Timothy filed an appeal earlier this month asking his conviction be overturned writing the verdict was “unreasonable” and “cannot be supported by the evidence.”
Cuthill appealed her conviction last Friday, also calling the verdict “unreasonable” and wants the conviction appealed on the grounds of spousal privilege. In the application, Cuthill stated the trial judge, Justice Alan Macleod, erred by charging the jury on the doctrine of willful blindness – suggesting if the jury determined Cuthill set the plan in motion that resulted in Lane’s death, she was guilty of first-degree murder.
Cuthill and Lane were in a custody battle when Lane went missing on Feb. 6, 2012. The two shared a daughter who was born in 2007, who Lane had not seen in three years when Cuthill applied for full-custody in 2011.
Lane and Cuthill had started seeing a mediator when Lane had his first visit with his daughter on Feb. 6, 2012 since 2008. That night, Lane met with the Rempel brothers after a call from a payphone and was driven out to a rural area outside of Calgary by Wilhelm to meet Timothy.
Lane was never seen again.
Calgary Police and RCMP found a burn barrel containing human remains four months after Lane went missing and Cuthill and the Rempel brothers were arrested in November 2012.
The couple, and Wilhelm were convicted after a six-week trial with four weeks of Crown evidence including messages, taped phone calls, Lane’s DNA found in the Rempel brothers’ vehicles, and the burnt human remains from a burn barrel that also included Lane’s class ring and pieces of a cell phone.
One of the more damning texts was when Cuthill had received a text at 1:20 a.m. on Feb. 6, 2012 from Timothy that read, “Give me the okay,” and Cuthill replied at 1:24 a.m. “Okay.”
In the fifth and sixth week, Cuthill and Timothy testified in their own defence.
“I wasn’t part of that plan, I didn’t know what they were going to do,” Cuthill testified. “None of this was my idea.”
Timothy admitted to meeting with Lane the night of his disappearance but said when he left Lane was alive.
“(Lane) was crying and being emotional and I told him if he can’t get past this then this conversation is over,” he said.
It took the jury of eight women and four men 19 hours to reach the verdict. The Rempel brothers were also found guilty on the charge of kidnapping in connection with Lane’s death.
At press time, Wilhelm had not filed for an appeal.
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