A Peace River jury took under four hours to acquit a retired truck driver of murdering an Indigenous woman whose body police found in Manitoba almost three years after her disappearance.
Grant Arthur Sneesby, 72, showed no outward expression Wednesday as a jury found him guilty of the lesser included charge of manslaughter for his role in the 2015 death of Gloria Gladue.
Gladue, 44, was last seen at Sneesby’s home in northern Alberta on Oct. 10, 2015, while visiting town for a wedding. Sneesby admitted to stabbing Gladue to death in his kitchen, but claimed he did so in self-defence after she came at him with a knife.
He then wrapped her body in heavy construction plastic and stored it in an enclosed trailer for over a year before towing the trailer to a nephew’s property in Manitoba.
Sneesby eventually used a sled to move the remains to a wooded area, where they lay until a sprawling RCMP undercover operation coaxed the location from Sneesby and recovered the body June 17, 2018.
Speaking to the lawyers after the jury’s verdict, Justice Paul Belzil said jurors would have acquitted outright if they believed Sneesby’s claims of self-defence. He said the Crown had failed to prove Sneesby had the necessary intent for murder, and concluded — for the purposes of sentencing — that Gladue was the “initial aggressor” and that Sneesby’s response was excessive.
The Sneesby case is the second Alberta jury verdict in as many days involving Indigenous victims and claims of self-defence. On Tuesday afternoon, Anthony Bilodeau was convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter for the shooting deaths of Métis hunters Jacob Sansom and Maurice Cardinal, while his father Roger was found guilty of manslaughter.
