Crown seeks to retry Iqaluit man who claimed self-defence in 2017 chokehold death

Crown prosecutors are calling for the retrial of Daniel Hodgson, an Iqaluit man, following his acquittal in 2021 on second-degree murder charges. 

In May 2021, Nunavut Justice Susan Charlesworth ruled there was not enough proof to say Hodgson intended to kill Bradley Winsor during a 2017 party in Apex. 

But Crown lawyer Julie Laborde told a panel of three appeals court judges on Sept. 20 that Charlesworth didn't treat seriously the chokehold Hodgson used on Winsor. That hold was a disproportionate response for self-defence, she said. 

"A chokehold is not just a use of force — it is hazardous, dangerous and life-threatening," Laborde said. "The trial judge had the duty to assess the reasonableness of the choke."

At the party, Winsor, a large man, was intoxicated, high and becoming violent. Other people there asked Hodgson to get him to leave. After being hit on the head himself by Winsor, Hodgson put his arm around the younger man's neck from behind, Laborde said. She argued he could have let go sooner, but chose to hold on even when onlookers yelled for him to stop.  

"He intended to hold on until that person stopped struggling," she said. "When he let go, [Winsor] was unresponsive, not breathing and he had peed himself." 

Defence says Crown appeal is unfounded

For the Crown to appeal a decision, it can't just disagree with the trial judge. Instead, it needs to also show that a judge used the law wrong to reach a conclusion. 

Hodgson's appeal lawyer, Maija Martin, said the Crown argument doesn't do this. Martin said prosecutors don't have grounds to show the trial judge made what's called an "error of law." 

The trial judge, Charlesworth, accepted that Hodgson intended to hold on to Winsor "until he stopped struggling" as part of an intervention to calm down a belligerent man, Martin said. 

Both lawyers attested that the hold lasted only a short time. 

"The Crown has to disprove self-defence beyond a reasonable doubt," she said. "There simply is not a Crown appeal available."

Winsor's parents attended by phone.

No decision was made in court. One of the three appeals court justices, Frederica Schutz, called the case "complicated." She said a decision "will come in due course."