Loretta Saunders's killer to press ahead with murder appeal

The woman who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death ofLoretta Saunders is pressing ahead with anappeal of her conviction, and appears likely to represent herself in court.

On Wednesday morning, Victoria Henneberry spoke by phone with the judge of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. Last week, a judgerejected Henneberry's request for government funding to pay for a lawyer to help mount her appeal.

Justice Elizabeth Van den Eyndenhasruledtherequest was not in the interests of justice and in the decision last week said Henneberry'scase appeared weak at best.

Henneberry was one of two people who admitted to killing Saunders in February 2014. The other was Henneberry's boyfriend, Blake Leggette, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He is not appealing his sentence or conviction.

Henneberry served notice last summer, long after the normal appeal period had elapsed, that she wanted to appeal. She claimed she was under a great deal of stress, fear and anxiety at the time she entered her guilty plea.

Saunders, a 26-year-old Inuk woman from Labrador studying at Saint Mary's University, was killed in her Halifax apartment in February 2014. Her body was discovered in the median of the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Salisbury, N.B., a couple of weeks later.

According to court documents, Saunders was killed because Henneberry and Leggette couldn't afford to pay their rent for a room they were leasing from her.

Henneberry had already been denied legal aid funding for a lawyer to handle her appeal. The court's decision last week closed another avenue for her to get help in her case.

Before today's phone call, Henneberry faced essentially four options:Abandon her appeal, come up withprivate funding for a lawyer, conduct her own appeal, or appeal Van den Eynden's decision to a full, three-member panel of the appeal court.

At this point, it appears Henneberry will conduct her own appeal.She is to join another conference call next week to set dates for that appeal to be heard.