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Appeal Hearing Granted For B.C. Man Convicted In Teen's 2011 Halloween Death

The Canadian Press, 18 Jun, 2015 12:41 PM

ARMSTRONG, B.C. — A trial date has been set to hear the appeal of a British Columbia man who was found guilty of murdering an 18-year-old woman four years ago.

Twenty-nine-year-old Matthew Foerster was convicted of first-degree murder in April last year and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Taylor Van Diest was found near death along some train tracks in Armstrong, about 25 kilometres north of Vernon, on Halloween night in 2011.

Foerster filed an appeal last September and Crown spokesman Gordon Comer says a hearing is expected to begin in June of next year.

Foerster's lawyer alleges that the judge made mistakes in his instructions to the jury around intoxication and on the attempted sexual assault as an element of first-degree murder.

The victim's mother Marie Van Diest said last year that the appeal is part two of a nightmare, and that she couldn't stand the thought of the case resurfacing.

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