Former political adviser acquitted of killing wife with hatchet
WINNIPEG - A Winnipeg jury has acquitted a former political adviser of second-degree murder in the hatchet death of his wife.
Mark Stobbe was a high-ranking official in the Saskatchewan government who had moved with his family to the Winnipeg area in 2000 for a similar job with the Manitoba government.
His wife, Beverly Rowbotham, was found dead in her car 15 kilometres away from the family home on Oct. 25, 2000.
Stobbe told police his wife disappeared while out grocery shopping, but police found her blood, hair and bone fragments in the couple's backyard.
The 12 jurors returned with the verdict after two days of deliberations.
The Crown alleged Stobbe staged the killing to make it look like a robbery, but the defence said the Crown had no proof to back up its theory.
The verdict follows seven weeks of testimony from 80 witnesses in a puzzling whodunnit based on circumstantial evidence.
Stobbe told police he had fallen asleep after Rowbotham went out. When he woke up in the wee hours, she had not returned.
The Crown alleged Stobbe hit his wife with a hatchet 16 times in the head, then carried her body to a car in the garage and drove her body to Selkirk to make it look like she had been robbed. Stobbe then bicycled 15 kilometres back home to report his wife missing, Crown attorney Wendy Dawson alleged.
But there were no witnesses to the killing. Neighbours reported not hearing or seeing anything unusual that night. A young girl who was selling treats door-to-door went to the Stobbe home around 8:45 p.m. and told her mother the couple seemed "nice."
The Crown said Stobbe was the only logical culprit. Would a stranger be able to kill Rowbotham in the backyard, get her into the car, open the garage door and drive away without Stobbe hearing, Dawson asked the jury? Would a stranger take the risk of driving a body 15 kilometres away?
Stobbe spent six days testifying, most of it under cross-examination, in which he consistently denied the Crown's accusations.
The move to Manitoba had been taxing for the couple, court heard. The home was in bad need of repair and a wet spring made for a terrible mosquito season that kept the family indoors. Stobbe was also spending long hours at work as the spring legislature session dragged on into summer.
But things were improving in the fall, Stobbe testified. The family was starting to make friends and he and Rowbotham had agreed to sell the house and look for a better one.
In his final instructions, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Chris Martin told jurors they were examining a puzzle with many pieces, and the onus was on the Crown to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
