Wilmot Park killer seeks to appeal
Angela April Walsh, 25, serving life in prison for murdering Clark Ernest Hunter Greene in April 2020 but she now argues conviction should've been for manslaughter instead
Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of a violent crime.
A Fredericton woman who admitted to second-degree murder for stabbing a man in the chest and face claims she should have been convicted of manslaughter because it was a robbery that went wrong.
Angela April Walsh, 25, AKA Ali Morningstar, formerly of Kings College Road, pleaded guilty in early 2023 to second-degree murder in the April 2020 death of Clarke Ernest Hunter Greene, 31, and she was sentenced in June to life in prison - the only sentence available for murder under the Criminal Code of Canada.
Court of King’s Bench Justice Kathryn Gregory also set her parole-ineligibility period at 13 years, meaning Walsh must serve at least that long in prison before she can apply for parole.
However, Walsh filed a handwritten notice of appeal with the New Brunswick Court of Appeal on Sept. 14, first asking for an extension of time to file that appeal.
In criminal cases, intended appellants are supposed to file notices of appeal within 30 days of cases’ conclusions, and Walsh missed that deadline by a couple of months.
“The reason that I’d like an extension for an appeal is that I had no knowledge that there was a timespan for it,” Walsh wrote in a note attached to her notice of appeal.
“I am also a first-time federal inmate, so I’m still new to the processes.”
In more serious cases such as murder, appeal courts usually grant such extensions, especially if the appellant is self-represented and serving a term of incarceration.
Change of story led to lesser charge
Walsh was originally charged with first-degree murder in Greene’s death, but at the outset of her trial in January, her spouse, Zachery David Murphy, 23, testifying for the Crown, changed his story.
He told a provincial court at Walsh’s preliminary inquiry that she had hatched the plan to kill the victim, and he relayed a similar account to police when he was initially interviewed after his arrest in the spring of 2020.
However, as a key witness for the prosecution at Walsh’s jury trial, he claimed the whole thing was his idea.
That brought the trial to a halt, and during a recess, the Crown and defence lawyers conferred, eventually coming back to the court with an agreement for a guilty plea to the lesser count of second-degree murder.
Murphy had previously also been charged with first-degree murder for his lesser role in Greene’s death, but he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was co-operating with the prosecution up until his testimony at Walsh’s trial.
Likewise, he was sentenced to life in prison, but he’s eligible to apply for parole after serving 11 years.
During Walsh’s sentencing hearing, court heard she had decided to lure Greene to Wilmot Park in downtown Fredericton in the early-morning hours of April 15, 2020, to rob him.
Walsh met the victim at the park’s gazebo, and at her direction, Murphy hid in the greenery, only to approach Greene from behind and striking him with a pipe.
With Greene incapacitated, Walsh pulled a knife out of his pocket, jumped on top of him and started stabbing him over and over, in the torso and the face. Court Walsh gouged out Greene’s eyes in a rage, and then concluded her attack by stomping on his face.
Then she stood and stomped on his face with her foot.
Medical evidence showed Greene was stabbed in the face seven times and the chest 12 times. One blow punctured his heart, another his lung and another still cut a pulmonary artery.
His body was found at the gazebo by a passerby later that morning.
During her sentencing decision, Gregory described Walsh’s actions as “an inexplicable, spontaneous explosion of violence.”
Grounds for intended appeal
In handwritten notes attached to the notice of appeal form Walsh filled out at the Nova Institution, a women’s prison in Truro, N.S., she outlines her reasons for challenging the outcome of her case despite her guilty plea.
Her main contention is that there wasn’t any intent to kill.
“I believe that this crime was an unintentional one as it was only supposed to be a robbery, but it went wrong and someone regretably [sic] lost their life in the process,” she wrote.
“I feel horrible, ashamed, sad, disgusted with myself and guilty that a crime of this nature had occured [sic]. Therefore, considering the evidence, I believe second-degree murder should be reduced to a manslaughter charge instead.”
The language included with the notice of appeal, however, specifically avoids mentioning that she committed the acts in question, and it also questions some of the facts of the case that were relayed to the court during sentencing.
The killer contends court heard she had a driver’s licence when she didn’t have one or know how to drive, and that her hair colour was erroneously reported as being brown or red when she had “platinum blonde” hair in the time before and after Greene’s death.
“Therefore, I couldn’t be the ‘redhead’ that was seen walking with the victim shortly before the crime occured [sic],” Walsh wrote.
She also denied that she ever gave statements to police even though court heard she’d discussed the events at the park with police after her arrest.
In fact, in hearings before her trial, video of her statement to police were played for the court to determine admissibility.
“And lastley, [sic] I got my lawyer at the time, T.J. Burke, to make sure that all evidence was to be laid out for the trial when the Crown was showing evidence,” she wrote.
The killer further argues that a reference to her alternating hands in her repeated stabbing of the victim shows the attack couldn’t have occurred as the court was told.
“It also states that I’m ambidextrous when in fact I’m only right handed, so I couldn’t have used both hands in this crime as I’m unable to do so,” she wrote.
Walsh contends no clothing with stains testing positive for blood were found at her residence.
“There should also be body-cam video-footage of my arrest from inside my residence that shows that I did not throw a cellular device behind me, but rather dropped it on a pile of clothes next to my right arm,” she wrote.
Court of Appeal Justice Raymond French is scheduled to hear Walsh’s motion for extension of time to file her notice of appeal Dec. 6.
Thus far, Walsh is self-represented in her appeal process.
You can contact Don MacPherson at ftonindependent@gmail.com.