Former B.C. Lions receiver Josh Boden loses appeal of murder conviction

WARNING: This story contains details of violence.

British Columbia's highest court has dismissed an appeal from former CFL player Josh Boden over his second-degree murder conviction for killing his ex-girlfriend in 2009.

Boden, who once played as a wide receiver for the B.C. Lions, was found guilty in 2021 of the murder of Kimberly Hallgarth.

The trial heard evidence that he beat Hallgarth, stomped on her neck, strangled her and then staged the scene to make it look like an accident.

Much of the prosecution's case hinged on the evidence of another former girlfriend, Heidi Nissen, who was present at the time of the murder. 

According to a new decision from the B.C. Court of Appeal, Boden's appeal of his conviction focused on Nissen's testimony. He argued that evidence about his violence against her should not have been admitted and that the trial judge should not have accepted her testimony as truthful.

But a panel of three appeal court justices said they could find no reversible error in the trial judge's reasons for convicting Boden.

Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten pointed out that Boden had consented to allowing the trial to hear evidence about his behaviour toward Nissen before the murder, and said the testimony was not used in a prejudicial way.

"The trial judge instructed himself more than once that uncharged disreputable conduct cannot be used to infer that the accused is the type of person who would commit a murder," DeWitt-Van Oosten said in the unanimous decision.

She added that there was "abundant evidence" that backed up Nissen's testimony about the murder, including other witnesses, police photographs from the scene, an autopsy report and DNA analysis.

Witness testified about seeing brutal killing

Boden has been charged or convicted of multiple other crimes since his CFL career ended.

He was charged with assaulting Hallgarth a year before her death, but was later acquitted. In 2011, he was found guilty of multiple sexual assaults, as well as assaulting a police officer and obstructing an officer.

Boden's original trial heard that both Hallgarth and Nissen had been working for Boden in the sex trade at the time of the murder on March 15, 2009.

Nissen, who had been living with Boden, testified that the night before, she'd left their apartment and gone to a safe house after he'd thrown her onto the balcony and started kicking her in the ribs.

She testified that she took a cab to see Hallgarth early in the morning of March 15, but found that Boden had beaten her there.

The court heard that Boden began punching Nissen and then choked her until she lost consciousness,.

When she woke up, she testified, she saw Boden standing with one foot on Hallgarth's neck. Nissen said she saw him kill the other woman, then try to stage the scene by dumping pills into Hallgarth's mouth, wiping down her body, positioning it at the bottom of a staircase and clipping her fingernails.

Nissen came forward to the police in 2010 after another violent incident and identified Boden as Hallgarth's killer, but withdrew her statement after she discovered she was pregnant, according to the appeal court decision.

The trial heard she lived with Boden on and off for about 10 years after the murder and had two children with him, in a relationship marked by no-contact orders and the involvement of police and the Ministry of Children and Family Development. 

By the time Boden stood trial, Nissen and her children had been moved to an undisclosed location with police assistance.

Boden received a life sentence for the murder, with no chance of parole for at least 14 years.