Man exonerated after Manitoba court quashes murder convictions

The Manitoba Law Courts building in Winnipeg on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

WINNIPEG — An Indigenous man in Manitoba who spent more than two decades in prison has had his three murder convictions quashed and the charges stayed.

Former justice minister David Lametti referred the case of Robert Sanderson to the Manitoba Court of Appeal in 2023 for a new hearing, saying there was a likely a miscarriage of justice.

Innocence Canada, the group that applied for the ministerial review of the convictions based on new evidence, said the Appeal Court ordered a new trial Friday and the Crown stayed proceedings Monday in Court of King's Bench.

James Lockyer, a founding director of Innocence Canada, said it has been a "long haul" for Sanderson and the organization.

"We've known about his case for certainly more than a decade," Lockyer said in an interview. "Just took us awhile to get to it, but we did, and finally the case is over. So, big relief for him and for us."

Sanderson and two others were charged in the 1996 killings of three men in Winnipeg.

The bodies of Jason Gross, Thomas Krowetz and Stefan Zurstegge were found in a home on Aug. 6, 1996, by the father of one of the victims.

Gross had blunt trauma injuries to the head and body and multiple stab wounds. Krowetz was shot three times and had at least three dozen stab wounds. Zurstegge was shot twice and stabbed 34 times.

Sanderson was convicted the following year on three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years.

The Manitoba Court of Appeal Court dismissed his appeal in 1999, and he was later denied leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Innocence Canada said it applied to Lametti in 2017 for a review based on new evidence.

An expert Crown witness had said hair found on one victim belonged to Sanderson based on microscopic analysis. But DNA testing later established that the hair came from someone else.

Innocence Canada also said a witness to events before the killings who linked Sanderson to them was given more than $15,000 by authorities as part of an agreement after he testified at trial. It said this was not disclosed to Sanderson and the prosecution could not explain why.

Sanderson was released on parole in 2021.

Lockyer said Sanderson is now a free man and is not subject to anything to do with the killings anymore.

"Of course, he served a lot of time on them and then was on parole for another four years, but that's in the past," Lockyer said.

Sanderson now lives in British Columbia and is an artist.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2025.

The Canadian Press