Woman who killed Loretta Saunders won't get taxpayer funding for lawyer

One of the two people who admitted to killing Loretta Saunders has been denied taxpayer funding to hire a lawyer to appeal her murder conviction.

In a decision released Wednesday, Justice Elizabeth Van den Eynden of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal rejected Victoria Henneberry's request for financial assistance, saying it was not in the interest of justice.

"Ultimately, it will be up to a panel of this court to determine whether Ms. Henneberry's appeal has any merit," Van den Eynden wrote.

"For the purposes of this motion, I will only say this if there are any arguable issues raised by Ms. Henneberry on appeal, they appear weak at best."

Henneberry pleaded guilty in April 2015 to second-degree murder in Saunders's death.

Saunders, a 26-year-old Inuk woman from Labrador, 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 her boyfriend Blake Leggette couldn't afford to pay their rent for a room they were leasing from her.

Denied legal aid

Leggette pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence. He is not appealing his conviction.

Several months after she pleaded guilty, Henneberry served notice that she wanted to appeal. She said she was under a great deal of fear and anxiety when she entered her guilty plea.

Henneberry was denied legal aid for her appeal, so she went to court to try to get a judge to order funding so she could hire a lawyer.

'They keep a wound fresh'

The judge's rejection of financial assistance came as a relief to Miriam Saunders, Loretta's mother.

"I'm not so worried about her defending herself," Saunders said in a phone interview from Labrador. "But them not giving her a lawyer yes, that took a lot off me. I was really relieved."

Saunders said the prospect of Henneberry launching an appeal has been hard on her family.

"It's like they keep a wound fresh all the time," Saunders said.

"You just think your wound is healed and they start busting it open and pouring salt and make you have pain all over."