SASKATOON — The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has overturned six firearm-related convictions against a Saskatoon woman and ordered a new trial. Prosecutors alleged at trial that she acted as a gunrunner for street gangs.
The appeal court found that the jury wasn’t properly instructed on how to use a recorded phone call that was a key piece of the Crown’s evidence against Corey Amber Paddy. The phone calls with her boyfriend Brett Karol were recorded while he was in custody.
“The Feb. 4 call loomed large in the jury’s deliberations, as guilty verdicts were returned within minutes of the jury listening to the call for a second time,” said Justice Jeffery Kalmakoff in his Feb. 20 written decision. Justices Jillyne Drennan and Naheed Bardai were in agreement.
Jurors asked to rehear the call after two hours of deliberation and returned guilty verdicts 26 minutes later.
The call with Karol included references to a “strap,” a slang term for a firearm, and comments about being “under investigation for [expletive] trafficking guns.”
Court documents reveal the Feb. 4 call was evidence of extrinsic misconduct on Paddy’s part as it contained discussions of her involvement in criminal activity that fell outside the scope of the dates specified in the indictment, namely, the possession and movement of firearms, being under suspicion for trafficking firearms, using illegal drugs, and potentially being involved in assaults. In the phone call she also joked about committing robberies to get bail money for Karol.
The Appeal Court found the call amounted to evidence of “extrinsic misconduct” and carried a significant risk of unfair prejudice if not carefully confined in the jury’s deliberations.
"In this case, the trial judge’s failure to provide a limiting instruction in relation to the Feb. 4 call was an error of law, which means that the convictions must be set aside and a new trial ordered," said Justice Kalmakoff.
Paddy, now 32, was convicted by a jury in April 2023 of possessing firearms and ammunition without a licence, possessing them while prohibited, and possessing firearms for the purpose of transferring them. She was sentenced to five years in prison. The charges stemmed from police seizures of firearms and ammunition from Karol’s truck, his Avenue H North home, and a Breitebox storage locker he rented in March 2020. Surveillance video showed Paddy helping move items – including a guitar case and a gun safe – into and out of two storage units in late March and early April.
The Crown argued the Feb. 4 call, combined with the surveillance footage and later phone calls from April 19 and 20, 2020, demonstrated Paddy’s knowledge, control, and intention regarding the firearms. The defence maintained the case was entirely circumstantial and that Karol had exclusive control over the locations where the weapons were found. They also argued the February call was rambling, drug-influenced, and unreliable.
The Court of Appeal didn’t rule on whether the Feb. 4 call should have been admitted. Instead, it held that even assuming the evidence was admissible, the trial judge was required to instruct the jury on the limited, proper use of the call and to warn against propensity reasoning. No such instructions were given.
Court documents reveal that between 2016 and 2019, police flagged Paddy for alleged involvement with a street gang.
ljoy@sasktoday.ca
