Logan Scott, of Salmon Arm, was found not guilty of manslaughter in the 2013 death of Jillian McKinty.
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September 12, 2017 - 12:20 PM
KELOWNA – The man charged with choking to death a woman he met on a dating website has been found not guilty of manslaughter.
Crown alleged Salmon Arm resident Logan Scott strangled Jillian McKinty, 27, in her Armstrong home sometime before her body was found the morning of Nov. 27, 2013.
Police originally ruled the case accidental but after McKinty’s parents noticed her new laptop and cell phone were missing, they began investigating.
Court heard in earlier proceedings that McKinty and Scott met on the online dating site Plenty of Fish and had a casual relationship.
“(Scott) eventually admitted he was there when she died,” Justice Arne Silverman said in Kelowna Supreme Court today, Sept. 12. “He says they were having sex, she was on top, she wrapped her shirt around her neck and leaned backwards and just laid there.”
He told police she died so quietly he did not notice, testimony that was disputed by an expert.
A pathologist testified that McKinty died of asphyxiation but could not be “100 per cent sure” it was caused by strangulation as there were no marks or scratches on either McKinty or Scott.
The expert said there would have been a “violent physical reaction including involuntary convulsion as her body reacted to being choked" and that she “could not have continued to be choked by holding onto the ligature after she leaned back.
"She would have reached unconsciousness … and her hands will have freed the holding of the ligature.”
Despite Scott dressing the dead body afterwards, cleaning up the scene and stealing her laptop and cell phone, Justice Silverman found him not guilty of manslaughter.
“The expert could not say for certain that it was ligature,” he said.
He found Scott guilty of theft under $5,000 for stealing the laptop and will be sentenced later today.
Jillian McKinty was found dead the morning of Nov. 27, 2013 in her home in Armstrong by an upstairs neighbour after her two young children were heard yelling.
Image Credit: Facebook
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