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Court of Appeal dismisses Derek Saretzky’s conviction appeal

The Alberta Court of Appeal has unanimously dismissed an application to overturn one of Derek Saretzky’s three convictions.

At the age of 24, Saretzky was convicted in 2017 of three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Hanne Meketech, 69, Terry Blanchette, 27, and Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette, 2, in the Crowsnest Pass in 2015.

Saretzky is now 27-years old and still has 70 more years to serve in prison.

He originally filed an appeal on all three murder convictions. However, earlier this year, his lawyer asked the appeals panel to substitute an acquittal only in relation to Meketech.

That appeal was dismissed by all three justices on the panel on Tuesday (Nov. 24). They note that Saretzky was not detained while being questioned by RCMP about the Meketech killing, which happened six months after he was charged for the two other murders. That means his charter rights were not violated since police were not required to remind him of his right to contact a lawyer.

Saretzky is still seeking to appeal his sentence, which has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.

 

*** Story by Sam Borsato, MyLethbridgeNow.com ***

Bradley Jones
Bradley Jones
Delivering local news and sports in the East Kootenay since April 2016, Bradley now calls Cranbrook home. Born and raised in Airdrie, AB, Bradley graduated from Lethbridge College, and has been a journalist, news anchor and reporter since 2014. Bradley took on local News Director responsibilities when he moved to Cranbrook in 2016. He is now Vista Radio's Kootenay News Director, managing and overseeing all news operations at the company's five regional radio stations in Cranbrook, Creston, Nelson, Castlegar, and Grand Forks.

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