HALIFAX -- A 31-year-old woman has been charged with second degree murder in connection with the homicide of 80-year-old Douglas MacLeod Barrett in March 2019.
Cape Breton Regional Police were called to a home on Terrace Street in Sydney the evening of March 22, 2019.
Officers found the body of an 80-year-old Douglas MacLeod Barrett inside the home. Police said his death was not a random act.
On Wednesday, police arrested 31-year-old Mallory Ann Paul at the Central Nova Correctional Centre in Truro, where she was scheduled to be released.
Paul was remanded back into custody pending an appearance at court on Friday.
She is also facing a charge of property damage resulting from her arrest.
Police say the charges come after an extensive investigation by the Cape Breton Regional Police Major Crime Unit, in conjunction with the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner’s Office and the National Forensic Laboratory.
Barrett had been stabbed in a previous incident in 2015 that led to the conviction of another woman on a charge of assault causing bodily harm.
In that case, the woman, a sex worker, had argued at trial she stabbed Barrett in self-defence, and the Appeal Court later overturned her conviction and ordered a new trial, concluding the evidence was contradictory.
With files from the Canadian Press.
