Crown wants Wilmot Park murderer to spend 5 more years in prison for lying at trial

New Brunswick Crown prosecutors want a convicted murderer to spend five more years in prison for providing false testimony that upended the trial of his girlfriend, who was accused in the same homicide.

Crown prosecutor MacKenzie Jefferies said Zachery Murphy deserved the extra prison time for the crime of perjury, which he committed when he lied on the stand as a witness during the trial of Angela Walsh in January 2023.

"It's a calculated attempt to distort reality, undermine the integrity of judicial proceedings, and in this case, potentially impact the outcome of a first-degree murder trial," said Jefferies, speaking Friday before Fredericton provincial court judge Natalie LeBlanc.

Murphy and Walsh were jointly charged with first-degree murder in the homicide of Clark Greene, whose body was found near a gazebo in Fredericton's Wilmot Park in April 2020.

Murphy pleaded guilty to the lesser second-degree murder in November 2021, and was set to testify as a Crown witness in Walsh's first-degree murder trial.

In that trial, Crown prosecutor Darlene Blunston told jurors they could expect Murphy to testify that he helped commit the murder, but it was Walsh who was chiefly responsible for stabbing Greene to death.

Instead, Murphy testified he was the one who stabbed Greene, all while being unaware of what Walsh was doing at that exact moment.

The testimony effectively ended the trial, as it prompted the Office of the Attorney General to consent to allow Walsh to plead guilty instead to the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

She was later sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 13 years.

'I was fearing for my own safety', says Murphy

Murphy appeared in court Friday by video conferencing from Springhill Institution in Nova Scotia, where he's serving his sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole until 2031.

Asked if he had any remarks for the court, Murphy said he lied during Walsh's trial to protect his own safety.

"When you're a [maximum security] inmate or inmate of any sort, there's a code you have to follow, right?" Murphy said.

"And well yes, I still wanted to do the statement and all that stuff… but I was fearing for my own safety and I was acting in my own self preservation.

"I didn't want to be harmed or end up like most other people who have done this."

Asked by LeBlanc whether he regretted lying, Murphy said he didn't, as he felt he needed to for his own safety.

Defence recommends 2-year concurrent sentence

The Crown's recommendation would effectively prolong the amount of time before Murphy would be eligible for parole by another five years.

In contrast, defence lawyer Tim Murphy argued his client should be sentenced to a two-year sentence that would run concurrently to the one he's already serving.

Murphy argued the Crown was basing its recommendation on other cases where lying under oath resulted in accused murderers being acquitted altogether.

Where Walsh was still ultimately convicted of murder despite Murphy's lies under oath, Tim Murphy said he deserved a lesser sentence than the Crown's recommendation.

"I would submit this is on the relatively low end of the spectrum in terms of the seriousness of the offence," Murphy said.

Noting how different the two recommendations were, LeBlanc said she'd need time to deliberate on a sentence, and adjourned her decision until May 15.