Calgary man who drove over wife with U-Haul guilty of manslaughter, not murder: court of appeal

A Calgary man who drove over his wife with a U-Haul and left her to die alone in the middle of a snow-covered road had his second-degree murder conviction overturned and is now guilty of manslaughter, the province's top court ruled Tuesday.

Ronald John Candaele killed Melissa Blommaert on Feb. 10, 2020.

Following a trial in 2021, Candaele was convicted of second-degree murder when the judge found the killer intended to drive over his wife causing injuries that he would have known were likely to lead to her death.

Candaele appealed and after the Alberta Court of Appeal heard arguments from Candaele's lawyers Alias Sanders and Kim Ross as well as prosecutor Tom Spark, on Tuesday, the panel of three judges ruled in favour of the defence.

While Candaele may have "deliberately accelerated towards Ms. Blommaert, this does not necessarily mean that he intended to run her down and kill her," reads part of the 15-page decision.

"It is equally reasonable to infer from the totality of the evidence that Mr Candaele's intention was to bully and intimidate her to act as he wanted her to do."

Eviction, argument

During the trial, court heard that on the day of her killing, the couple had just been evicted from their subsidized housing apartment.

Blommaert rented a U-Haul and the pair had filled it with the contents of their apartment.

While on a street in the northwest community of Bowness, the two began to argue and Blommaert got out of the vehicle.

As she stormed off, her husband drove the fully-packed U-Haul into her, ran over her, turned around and drove away.

The appeal court found it was "objectively foreseeable" that as she was running down the road in the winter conditions, Blommaert might slip and fall.

"If the U-Haul was too close or going too fast, a reasonable person would have foreseen the risk of being unable to stop and running over her which was likely to cause life-threatening injuries given the size and weight of the fully loaded vehicle," wrote the panel of judges.

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'Long, tragic cycle of domestic violence'

The court ruled the evidence leads equally to findings of manslaughter and second-degree murder and that Candaele should receive "the benefit of the doubt that he was reckless …but did not have the intent for murder."

Candaele was originally handed a life sentence with no chance of parole for 16 years.

During the sentencing hearing, court heard Candaele had a long history of "terrorizing" his wife.

The judge described the "long, tragic cycle of domestic violence which culminated in Mr. Candaele committing the most heinous offence against Ms. Blommaert."

The matter now goes back to the trial judge, Court of King's Bench Justice Blair Nixon, for sentencing.