Family of slain Gatineau filmmaker devastated by not guilty verdict

The family of a Gatineau, Que., filmmaker killed in Belize say they're devastated to learn the two men accused in his homicide have been found not guilty.

Matthiew Klinck was found stabbed to death in January 2016 outside a home where he'd been staying in the village of Selena, in the western part of the Central American country.

At the time, police told CBC News Klinck's home "appeared ransacked."

Justice Antoinette Moore found the two suspects not guilty on Nov. 27, citing lack of evidence.

'No justice'

"There's no justice there," Klinck's mother, Louise Dallaire, told Radio-Canada in French. "It brought me back to the same place I was in four years ago. All the emotions came back."

The two suspects — Brandon Anderson, now 22, and a second suspect who was 16 at the time of their arrest in January 2016 — faced charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The court heard the two accused knew each other, and that Anderson and Klinck had been friends, according to Anderson's defence lawyer, Leeroy Banner.

Banner told CBC the judge threw out several pieces of key evidence, including a confession from Anderson. Banner said the defence argued police had obtained the confession illegally.

He said the judge also found police inappropriately interrogated the 16-year-old without a parent or guardian present. Most significantly, she ruled police had mishandled DNA evidence — a blood-stained glove allegedly belonging to the 16-year-old that was found at Klinck's residence.

Banner did not represent the younger suspect, whose lawyer could not be reached.

Banner said there had been a lot of international pressure on police to make a quick arrest.

"And at the end of the day, it's sad because the system doesn't work. It doesn't work because the police failed to do what they were supposed to do," he said.

Verdict 'not surprising'

Dallaire said she didn't follow the trial because of the emotional toll it would have taken.

"You want to just forget about it, you need to keep living," Dallaire said. "And it wouldn't have brought him back."

She said an official from the Canadian consulate sent news of the verdict by email.

Klinck's cousin, Jean-Sébastien Dallaire, was first to learn of the decision.

"It was not very surprising," he said. "When my cousin was murdered, my uncle and aunt went [to Belize]. When they came back it was obvious that corruption is a big problem over there. The police can't be trusted. The authorities, there's no way you can trust anybody."

'High degree of caution'

Dallaire said his cousin loved Belize and its people, but he thinks Klinck was targeted because he made more money than most people in the country.

"For us naive Canadians, we live in a world where we have most of everything. It's very hard not to be naive when you go into a place like that, and think it's the same. But it's not the same."

The Canadian government's website warns travellers to Belize to exercise a "high degree of caution" due to "a high rate of violent crime throughout the country."

Klinck, who grew up in Gatineau's Aylmer sector, worked as a producer, director, videographer and editor in Belize.

He directed the 2007 film Greg & Gentillon, about two small-time comedians, and the 2008 film Hank and Mike, an Easter movie about holiday mascots.