Calgary murder trial: Brown claims self-defence in strangling of secret lover Briggs-Scout
Garry Dean Brown, 63, admits strangling Ginnean Briggs-Scout but says she attacked him with a knife. Crown argues he killed her to protect a six-year secret affair.
Closing arguments heard in Calgary trial over strangling of Lethbridge woman
A Calgary judge must now weigh whether Garry Dean Brown killed Ginnean Briggs-Scout to silence her — or whether he acted in self-defence. Closing arguments in Brown's second-degree murder trial were delivered Friday, cbc.ca reports.
Brown, 63, does not dispute that he strangled Briggs-Scout, 28, in September 2024. He testified, however, that she had pulled a knife on him inside his camper trailer near Oyen, Alberta, and that he acted with no choice but to defend himself.
"Mr. Brown should be believed," defence lawyer Greg White told Court of King's Bench Justice Caroline Magnan. "His motive was purely defensive … Mr. Brown had less than seconds to act."
Crown: Brown killed to protect a secret
Prosecutor Vince Pingitore rejected that account. He argued that Brown had spent more than six years concealing a relationship with Briggs-Scout from his wife and family, and that by the summer of 2024 that secrecy was crumbling.
Brown, a City of Lethbridge employee, had lost his job after it emerged he had housed Briggs-Scout in a city-owned building. His financial stability was at risk.
"This case is ultimately about what the accused valued most," Pingitore told Magnan.
In Brown's own statements to his parents and to police — made after the killing, as investigators closed in — he said he had strangled Briggs-Scout after she threatened to expose their relationship to his family. Pingitore argued that account undermined any self-defence claim.
"In his own testimony, self-defence did not even cross his mind," said Pingitore. "He identified the catalyst for what occurred; she had his phone and threatened to reveal their relationship."
Pingitore told the judge that Briggs-Scout "became a threat to everything [he] spent years protecting," and that the only reasonable conclusion was that Brown intentionally caused her death.
The relationship and the final days
Briggs-Scout struggled with drug addiction and had at times worked in Lethbridge's sex trade. Brown had assisted her over the years with finances, food, housing and errands. The two had an on-and-off dynamic, with months-long gaps in contact. Brown testified she had been physically violent toward him on two separate occasions prior to her death.
In the days before she died, Briggs-Scout was staying with Brown at his camper trailer near Oyen. On September 9, 2024, the two got into an argument. Brown testified she drew a knife inside the trailer, and that he "strangled her until she was unconscious" using the belt from his housecoat.
Before her body was found, several of her belongings turned up in a ditch roughly three kilometres away. Among them was a knife — the one Brown says she had threatened him with.
"There is no evidence contradicting his evidence on that point," White said during closing arguments.
A receipt bearing Brown's name was also found with her belongings, which led police to the home he shared with his wife of more than 40 years. Brown immediately admitted to the killing. His wife later testified he was "distraught and suicidal."
Defence argues manslaughter if not self-defence
White told the court that even if Magnan does not accept the self-defence argument, she should convict Brown of manslaughter rather than murder.
"The intention was to render her unconscious, not death," White said.
Pingitore countered that the evidence supported a conviction for second-degree murder as charged, telling Magnan the deliberate act of strangulation left no ambiguity about intent.
Ruling pending on victim's prior violent acts
Magnan will deliver her verdict at a later date. Before reaching that decision, the judge must first rule on a separate matter: the defence introduced evidence of Briggs-Scout's prior violent behaviour, and Magnan has yet to determine whether that evidence will be admissible in her final assessment.
Source: Google News CA — Crime (EN)