Former B.C. Lions player Josh Boden convicted of 2nd-degree murder of ex-girlfriend

Former B.C. Lions player Josh Boden has been convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of his ex-girlfriend Kimberly Hallgarth in 2009.

Hallgarth was found dead in her Burnaby home on March 15, 2009. Boden was charged with assaulting Hallgarth a year prior to her death but was later acquitted.

He was cut from the Lions roster in 2008 following the domestic assault charge. Boden played as a wide receiver on the team for the 2006-07 season.

He subsequently played one game with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in September 2008 before being released again.

Boden was convicted of Hallgarth's murder in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday, a spokesperson for the B.C. Prosecution Service said in a statement. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Multiple crimes after end of football career

Boden, 34, has been accused of multiple crimes since his CFL career ended.

In 2011, he was found guilty of multiple sexual assaults, as well as assaulting a police officer and obstructing an officer.

Two of the sexual assaults involved Boden groping women at the Burrard and Commercial Drive SkyTrain stations in two separate incidents on Aug. 25, 2009.

After being arrested for those incidents, Boden was later charged with the sexual assault of another woman in her office building on Aug. 13, 2009.

He unsuccessfully tried to appeal his convictions for assaulting and obstructing a police officer in 2014. He committed the assaults when investigators tried to arrest him for the groping incidents.

The VPD issued a rare public warning when Boden was released on bail in 2009, saying he posed a "a significant risk to the community".

Boden's next appearance in court is Nov. 17 to fix a date for  sentencing on the second-degree murder charge.