Hughes to be sentenced for second-degree murder in May
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/01/2022 (1524 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A man found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of his wife is scheduled to be sentenced for the crime in May.
In December, Robert Hughes, 65, was found guilty by a jury of 12 people of killing his wife, Betty Hughes, before their east end house blew up. He pleaded not guilty to the charge.
He is now scheduled to be sentenced on May 18.
A second-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison. The sentencing hearing will be to determine how many years in prison he must serve before he is eligible for parole.
After the trial, defence lawyer Saul Simmonds said Hughes was feeling “broken” and the nearly two weeks of trial in the Brandon Court of Queens Bench was difficult for him to get through.
Over six days of trial, the court heard from various witnesses, including firefighters, police officers, neighbours, a DNA expert and a pathologist. Hughes had also testified in his own defence.
On Oct. 22, Brandon firefighters responded to the property after it blew up. When they arrived, the walls of the house were blown out and Manitoba Hydro had to turn off the natural gas line.
Brandon Police Service Const. Travis Foster said on the first day of the trial Betty was found inside the destroyed house with a multitude of cuts and lying in a pool of blood.
Firefighters then saw Hughes with a noose around his neck in the destroyed house, the court heard. He was transported to the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre, where he was arrested by Brandon police on Oct. 25.
Pathologist Dennis Rhee testified Betty had more than a dozen injuries when she died, but the ultimate cause of death was blood loss from an 11.7-centimetre wound that extended from her eyebrow across her temple and into her ear.
Hughes alleged there was a prolonged struggle with his wife in the kitchen of their house, which he said was like “World War III.” At the time, the two were in a strained relationship.
He said Betty grabbed a knife at one point and he was trying to control her arms. Eventually, the two ended up on the kitchen floor and Betty was dead.
Hughes testified he then wanted to take his own life, so he tampered with a gas line in the basement with the intention to breathe it in and die. The gas filled the room, though, and exploded after catching on a pilot light.
» dmay@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @DrewMay