A new trial has been ordered for a London man convicted three years ago of stabbing his girlfriend to death.
Melvin Flores, 43, was found guilty of second degree murder in the death of Cindy MacDonald, 29, whose body was found in the backyard of her father's Commissioners Rd. home with 53 blunt force wounds, including nine stab wounds.
He was sentenced by Superior Court Justice Peter Hockin to life with no parole for 10 years on Nov. 30, 2007.
But the Ontario Court of Appeal, in a decision released Monday, said errors in the judge's final instructions to the jury were enough to order a new trial for the El Salvadoran immigrant.
The court said the instructions did not adequately draw together all the relevant factors regarding Flores's state of mind when he stabbed MacDonald.
He testified that MacDonald had told him she had aborted a baby fathered by him and planned to keep the baby she thought she was carrying and fathered by her new lover.
After he stabbed her and left her in the back yard with the knife still in her back, Flores walked to a nearby drug store where he called the police.
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