GUILTY PA - Karen Leclair, 51, Erie County, 10 June 2017

  • #21
[h=1]Boater says wife fell overboard. Body found tied to anchor with bullet wound brings charges[/h]
ERIE, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man will stand trial on charges he shot his wife and tossed her into Lake Erie with an anchor tied to her but reported she'd accidentally fallen overboard while on his commercial fishing boat.

Christopher Leclair was ordered held for court at a hearing Thursday on a host of charges including criminal homicide. His attorney says he "maintains his innocence."
Leclair remains jailed in Erie County.
http://www.nh1.com/news/boater-says...d-to-anchor-with-bullet-wound-brings-charges/
 
  • #22
Lake Erie homicide defendant’s father held for court

http://www.goerie.com/news/20170905/lake-erie-homicide-defendants-father-held-for-court

A homicide defendant accused in his wife’s death on Lake Erie instructed his father to make a .38-caliber handgun “vanish,” a state police trooper testified Tuesday.

The father, 75-year-old Ernest C. Leclair, of Florida, was held for court on a second-degree misdemeanor count tampering with evidence following his preliminary hearing Tuesday before Springfield Township District Judge Chris MacKendrick.
 
  • #23
Case Advanced to Upper Court of Common Pleas

Death of Karen Leclair, 51 - Erie County - 10 Jun 2017 **Arrest**

Presumed-Deceased Wife:

Karen Leclair, 51 - Erie County - 10 Jun 2017

Karen Leclair
White / Female / 51 Years Old



Erie County is in North-Western, PA.

Previously:

4)) http://www.goerie.com/news/20170614/video-helped-lead-to-boaters-arrest-in-wifes-death

5)) http://www.yourerie.com/news/husband-of-missing-woman-charged-with-homicide/740874278

7))Their 55 Foot Commercial Fishing Boat :: Doris-M
[video=youtube;O2L4XbldN6s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2L4XbldN6s[/video]


Defendant Husband:

Christopher Scott Leclair
White / Male / 48 Years Old
DOB / Date of Birth: 04/21/1969

Upper Court Docket SheetS:

H)) https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/CPReport.ashx?docketNumber=CP-25-CR-0002693-2017

Pre-Trial Confinement :: No Bail Permitted


AOPC = Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts
F-1 = Felony of the 1st Degree
PA = Pennsylvania
PFD = Personal Flotation Device - Life Jacket
PSP = Pennsylvania State Police
SEINE = "SANE" - A type of vertical Fishing Net
USCG = United States Coast Guard
 
  • #24
Prosecutors seek first-degree murder conviction in Leclair case

http://www.goerie.com/news/20171115/prosecutors-seek-first-degree-murder-conviction-in-leclair-case

A trial date was not set in court Tuesday morning during 48-year-old Christopher S. Leclair’s formal arraignment before Erie County President Judge John J. Trucilla on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, abuses of a corpse, tampering with evidence, possessing an instrument of crime, carrying a firearm without a license and false reports in the death of 51-year-old Karen Leclair.

“At this time it’s a first-degree murder case,” District Attorney Jack Daneri said in court.

State police also charged Leclair’s father, 75-year-old Florida resident Ernest C. Leclair, with tampering with evidence on allegations he moved a gun hidden in the Leclairs’ residence on Route 6N at the request of Leclair. Ernest Leclair, who is free on bail, is scheduled for trial in March, according to court documents.
 
  • #25
Lake Erie homicide defendant’s father wants tampering charge tossed

http://www.goerie.com/news/20171125/lake-erie-homicide-defendants-father-wants-tampering-charge-tossed

Placidi argued in the motion to dismiss Ernest Leclair’s case that Leclair was cooperative with investigators and did not make the gun “disappear” as his son requested. The gun was also moved before it became public that Karen Leclair had died of a gunshot wound, Placidi wrote.

“The defendant merely removed a gun from the basement rafters and placed the gun under the drawer underneath a bed,” Placidi wrote.

Erie County Judge William R. Cunningham will consider the motion at a hearing Jan 3. The prosecution will also have a chance to respond to the motion.

Christopher Leclair remains in the Erie County Prison without bond. Prosecutors have said they will seek a first-degree murder conviction against him at his trial, which is scheduled for April.

https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/CPReport.ashx?docketNumber=CP-25-CR-0002747-2017
 
  • #26
http://www.goerie.com/news/20180113/leclair-wants-lake-erie-homicide-case-dismissed

A man accused of killing his wife on Lake Erie’s waters is asking that his case be dismissed in Erie County court because, the defense claims, it’s not clear whether the homicide occurred in Pennsylvania.

He’s also asking for a change of venue due to heavy media coverage of the case.

The defense lawyer for 48-year-old Christopher S. Leclair argued in a court filing Thursday that the Erie County District Attorney’s Office has not established where Leclair’s wife, Karen Leclair, was killed.
 
  • #27
Tampering case to proceed against dad in Lake Erie killing

A judge has denied a request to dismiss the case against a Florida man accused of moving a gun at the request of his son, Christopher Leclair, who had been charged with killing his wife while boating on Lake Erie in June.

The second-degree misdemeanor count of tampering with evidence against 75-year-old Ernest C. Leclair will proceed to trial, Erie County Judge William R. Cunningham ruled Wednesday afternoon.

DA: Leclair stayed in Pa. waters in Lake Erie homicide

Leclair, 48, is accused of killing his 51-year-old wife, Karen Leclair, while the couple was on Lake Erie aboard the fishing boat on June 10. He has asked a judge to dismiss the case against him because, his lawyer wrote, the prosecution did not establish whether the crime happened in Pennsylvania.

In a response filed last week in Erie County Court, Assistant District Attorney Paul Sellers wrote the radar pings show Leclair’s boat, the Doris-M, never went more than 4 miles off the coast of Presque Isle State Park.

“At no point during the commission of this crime did he leave the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” he wrote.
 
  • #28
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  • #30
Leclair wants Lake Erie homicide case dismissed
“In this case the Commonwealth alleges that defendant killed the victim in the waters of Lake Erie and that the body of the victim washed up on the shores of Lake Erie in New York State,” the lawyer, Bruce Sandmeyer, wrote in the filing. “Defendant contends that the Commonwealth has not established that an offense has occurred in Pennsylvania.”

Sandmeyer also wrote that Christopher Leclair should be granted a change of venue if his case proceeds to trial in Erie County Court.

“The overwhelming pretrial publicity prevents the defendant from even the possibility of securing a fair and impartial jury from Erie County or Northwest Pennsylvania,” he wrote, citing examples of local, national and international media coverage.
 
  • #31
  • #32
Defense, prosecution spar over Leclair trial testimony

His lawyer previously asked for a change of venue for the trial because of extensive news media coverage of the case. He said that he will request a change of venue again if a jury cannot be chosen from among the 150-person pool that will be subjected to individual questioning during jury selection Monday.
 
  • #33
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  • #36
Opening Statements
  • Commonwealth: Christopher Leclair was having an affair and murdered his wife to cover up his double life.
  • Defense: Karen Leclair was disturbed by the affair and took her own life.
 
  • #37
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  • #40
Christopher Leclair, 49, was sentenced to serve the mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole plus three years and nine months to 17 years for first-degree murder and other charges in Karen Leclair’s death.

Husband gets life in prison for wife's Lake Erie murder
 

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