N.L. man wrongfully convicted of killing his mother faces her killer during hearing

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- Brian Doyle sat motionless, staring down at his folded hands, as Greg Parsons, the son of the woman he killed, implored officials on Friday to keep him locked up.

Doyle appeared at his parole hearing via teleconference, from a well-lit boardroom in British Columbia. Parsons appeared from St. John's, the city where he found his 45-year-old mother, Catherine Carroll, dead in her home in 1991, slashed 53 times with a knife.

Parsons was 19 at the time and was wrongfully convicted in 1994 for her death. Doyle, his childhood friend, and who later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Carroll's death, stayed quiet when Parsons went to prison.

"I've been going through a terrible nightmare for 31 years now," Parsons said Friday as he began his victim impact statement. "There never seems to be an end to this cruel and unusual punishment."

Doyle was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 18 years. He began his sentence in maximum security facilities, and ultimately landed in the minimum security William Head Institution near Victoria, B.C. He was granted day parole last spring, in a hearing Parsons was unable to attend because of travel restrictions arising from the emerging COVID-19 pandemic.

Friday's hearing was set up to determine whether Doyle's day parole would continue. Parsons said he got a message from the parole board a few weeks ago saying this time, he'd get to have his say.

"It is on you now to watch this guy and recognize how dangerous he is," Parsons said as he concluded his statement Friday.

Carroll was killed in January of 1991. Nine days after he found her dead, Parsons was charged with her death and was convicted of second-degree murder in 1994. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and served six weeks before he was granted bail on appeal. Two years later, the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal set aside the conviction and called for a new trial.

In 1998, Parsons was exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence.

In an interview Wednesday, Parsons said the statement he wrote for Friday's hearing is the fourth he's written since the day he found his mother's body. Each statement has unearthed deep trauma and upended his life, he said.

"This is destroying me," he said Wednesday. "The nightmares are back, the whole nine yards. It's been horrible."

Still, he said, he'll never stop fighting for justice for his mother.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2021.