N.S. man convicted in 2020 murder of Colton Cook seeks new trial

A man convicted in a brutal murder four years ago in southwestern Nova Scotia is asking the province's highest court to grant him a new trial.

The lawyer for Robert Charles Rogers appeared Tuesday before a three-member panel of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.

Nicholas Fitch argued that the judge at Rogers's trial failed to properly instruct the jury on evidence from one of the witnesses.

Rogers was one of three men charged in connection with the death of Colton Cook, who was shot and stabbed in September 2020. Rogers was convicted last year of second-degree murder.

A man accused of being an accessory in Cook's death, Keith Siscoe Jr., testified at Rogers's trial. He told the jury how Rogers shot Cook with a shotgun, then attacked him with a blade.

"The first question that must be answered in this appeal is whether or not Keith Siscoe Jr. is a mixed witness; that being that he provided both inculpatory and exculpatory evidence," Fitch told the Court of Appeal.

Trial heard that Rogers was impaired

The lawyer said Siscoe testified that he, Rogers, and their co-accused, Wayne Crawford, were impaired on the day of the murder. Fitch said that testimony could support the argument Rogers was too drunk to form the intent to commit second-degree murder.

"The defences offered in this trial were that Wayne Crawford was the cause of the death of the victim, not the appellant, and the partial defence of an advanced intoxication, negating the required specific intent for second-degree murder and instead for a finding of manslaughter," Fitch told the judges.

Like Rogers, Crawford was convicted of second-degree murder. Siscoe was convicted of being an accessory to murder after the fact.

Crown prosecutor Erica Koresawa disagreed that the trial judge's instructions to the jury were incomplete.

"I say that in the context of the whole of the trial, the instructions were clear and accurate and fair. They conveyed the right information to the jury, and he left it to the jury to find what evidence they were going to find was inculpatory or what was exculpatory," Koresawa argued.

No need for new trial, Crown argues

The Crown argued the trial judge made no error in his instructions to the jury. But if he had, she said the mistake was so minor it does not warrant a new trial.

The Court of Appeal panel has adjourned its decision. No date for a ruling was given.

Rogers received an automatic life sentence after his conviction. The judge ruled the Yarmouth County man must serve at least 19 years in prison before being eligible for parole.

Cook was reported missing on Sept. 27, 2020. His partial remains were found two days later at a rural intersection in South Ohio, Yarmouth County.

Other remains were discovered on Sept. 27 near Cook's burned-out pickup truck.