Wrongfully convicted of killing daughters: Hart

A man convicted of murdering his twin daughters says he would have been clearedhad greater effort been made on his behalf at his Newfoundland Supreme Court trial.

"I think if they had heard all the story, I really don't think the verdict would've been the same," Nelson Hart told CBC News during an interview Friday afternoon at Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's.

"They only heard the Crown's side, and that's it. I had no evidence put before the jury at all," Hart said.

ANewfoundland Supreme Court jury on Wednesday found Hart guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the August 2002 drowning deaths of his daughters Karen and Krista, 3.

The defence which depicted Hart as a chronic liar whose confessions could not be believed rested without calling Hart as a witness, even though defence lawyer Derek Hogan said in opening statements that Hart would explain his version of events directly to the jury.

The jury instead heard mostly prosecution evidence, including videotaped confessions of Hart telling undercover officers posing as members of a criminal gang how he hadkilled his children.

Hart, who says he lied repeatedly due to fears of a beating, said the jury would have reached a different conclusion had he testified.

On the morning summations were made, Hart made an 11th-hour appeal to testify, but in a closed courtroom. Hart said the stress from testifying in publiccould trigger an epileptic seizure.

Justice Wayne Dymond refused to bar reporters and observers, but instead offered Hart the opportunity to testify behind a screen that would partially block him from public view. Hart refused.

Dymond said he turned down Hart's request on grounds that raising the possibility of a triggered seizure could give weight to defence evidence that Hart had suffered a seizure at Gander Lake, and that his panicking daughters wound up in Gander Lake.

Justice served, relatives and neighbours say

Hart's estranged in-laws and former next-door neighbours said they were pleased to see Hart convicted, and that they agreed with evidence collected during an elaborate four-month RCMP undercover operation.

The prosecution's case rested on confessions Hart made to undercover officers he assumed were members of a criminal gang.

On one tape, Hart was covertly videotaped confessing to planning and executing his daughters' murders.

On another tape, shot at the wharf in Little Harbour on Gander Lake near where the girls' bodies were pulled from the water, Hart re-enacted for an undercover officer how he pushed Karen and Krista into the water.

Wife stands by husband

Jennifer Hart, who stood by her husband during the trial, maintains he is innocent.

"If I had any doubt at all that he did something to my daughters, I would not be with him," she told VOCM Radio's Open Line on Friday.

Legal aid lawyer Derek Hogan, who represented Hart during the trial, said he is planning an appeal that will involve the RCMP sting, which he described as a controversial means of obtaining evidence.

Nadine Hunt Jennifer Hart's sister said her family was relieved by the verdict, even though the case has cleaved Jennifer Hart from her relations.

'We thought he did it': sister-in-law

"Two little girls, Karen and Krista, are at peace today because justice was served," Hunt told reporters Friday.

"Everybody is innocent until proven guilty, but right from the beginning we thought that, you know, he did it."

Hunt said she and other family members who said they had problems with Nelson Hart before the murders took place had trouble accepting the various explanations Hart had given to investigators.

"The story didn't ring true, first when it happened," she said. In particular, she could not understand why Hart who insisted he could not swim and was afraid of the water would even take his daughters to play by a wharf at Gander Lake.

Acouple who lived next door to Nelson and Jennifer Hart said they were not surprised by Hart's conviction.

Controlling man

Angus and Natasha Ryan described Nelson Hart as a controlling man who left his family in the lurch. Natasha Ryan said Jennifer Hart once told her that her husband had locked the cupboard doors in the kitchen.

"He would buy his own food and she used to have to go to the Salvation Army for her and the kids to eat," she said.

Angus Ryan said he remembers seeing the Hart twins on the night before they died.

"I just remember how cute they looked, how lovely they were they were hopping and skipping," Angus Ryan said.

The next time he saw them was at a funeral parlour. He later dug the girls' graves.

Doubts raised

Although Jennifer Hart has always publicly insisted that her husband did not hurt their girls, Natasha Ryan told CBC News that Jennifer Hart had her doubts immediately after the girls died.

"Jennifer was out on the back step, crying, when I went out with the garbage. I sat down and tried to comfort her a bit and she looked at me [and] she asked, 'What do you think? Do you think Nelson made away with the girls?'" Natasha Ryan recalled.

"At that time, I said, 'I don't know what to think.'"

Natasha Ryan said she was pleased that Nelson Hart had been convicted.

"I think they should have taken him down to Little Harbour [the spot at Gander Lake where the girls were drowned] and done what he done with the youngsters," she said.

"After all these years, I think he got what was coming to him."

Nadine Hunt said despite a wide rift within the family, it could be closed instantly if Jennifer Hart the youngest in the family wanted it so.

"The saddest thing is that we have lost a sister," Hunt said. "She is our sister, no matter what."