New trial in teen's murder

Photo: Contributed

Mathew Foerster

A new trial has been ordered for the man convicted of first-degree murder in the death of 18-year-old Taylor Van Diest in Armstrong on Halloween night in 2011. 

A panel of B.C. Court of Appeal justices unanimously agreed that two of five issues raised by Mathew Foerster's lawyers were enough to require the case to go to trial for a second time.

Foerster, from Cherryville, was handed an automatic sentence of life in prison with no eligibility of parole for 25 years following a murder trial in Kelowna in April, 2014.

“There were two important errors in the judge’s charge to the jury,” said Justice Harvey Groberman, in a written decision issued on Tuesday.

He said the original jury should have been told Foerster's disposal of a shoelace and flashlight had no bearing on whether he was guilty of murder or manslaughter.

The Court of Appeal also said the jury was incorrectly instructed on how it could interpret Van Diest's last text message before her death, which said she was "being creeped" as she took a shortcut on her way to a Halloween event.

At trial, Foerster admitted he was responsible for the injuries to Van Diest, but contended he was only guilty of manslaughter or second-degree murder.

Tuesday's ruling included a description of the severe injuries inflicted on the teenager including blunt force trauma to the head due to a series of blows and ligature marks to the neck showing she had been strangled.

In the concluding remarks allowing the appeal Groberman said, “The judge’s instructions on post-offence conduct might have led the jury to believe that it could treat Mr. Foerster’s act of disposing of the flashlight and shoelace as probative of an intention to kill Ms. Van Diest. The instruction appears to have been given inadvertently, as the judge had agreed with counsel that it would be corrected before delivery.

“Further, the judge failed to give the jury a careful limiting instruction to ensure that it did not use Ms. Van Diest’s last text message as evidence of Mr. Foerster’s state of mind. This failure was greatly exacerbated by the Crown’s misstatement of the evidence with respect to the context of the text message.

“Unfortunately, these errors cannot be corrected on appeal, nor can it be said with assurance that they did not affect the verdict. Accordingly, I am of the view that the appeal must be allowed and a new trial ordered.”

Last year, Marie Van Diest, Taylor's mother, described the appeal process as another "nightmare" for the family.