An attempted murder charge has been stayed against an amateur filmmaker in Edmonton who was convicted of killing and dismembering a man.
Mark Twitchell had been charged for an attack on Gilles Tetreault in 2008.
Mr. Twitchell, who is 31, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder of Johnny Altinger.
Mr. Twitchell bludgeoned and fatally stabbed Mr. Altinger in a garage in October, 2008, just one week after he tried the same thing on Mr. Tetreault, who fought and got away.
Two years later, some of Mr. Altinger's remains were discovered in a sewer in a north Edmonton alley near the home of Mr. Twitchell's parents.
Mr. Twitchell has filed notice with the Alberta Court of Appeal that he intends to fight his conviction.
During the trial, court heard that Mr. Twitchell lured Mr. Altinger to a residential garage he had rented on a quiet southside street by pretending to be a woman on an online dating service.
Mr. Twitchell ambushed Mr. Altinger, clobbered him on the skull with a metal pipe, knifed him in the chest and throat, watched him bleed out on the floor, then dismembered him.
He tried to burn the remains, but when they wouldn't disintegrate, he dumped them down a sewer.
The details were contained in a document written by Mr. Twitchell and found by police on his laptop computer.