New trials ordered for man convicted of killing 2 women in Niagara Region
TORONTO — Ontario’s highest court has ordered new, separate trials for a man convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of two sex workers in Niagara Region over more than two years, saying the cases should not have been tried together.
Michael Durant challenged his 2012 convictions in the deaths of two women identified only as D.D. and C.C., arguing the trial judge made several errors in conducting the legal proceedings.
Court documents show the two women died from blunt force trauma to the head.
D.D., who was 32, was found in a ditch in Welland, Ont., in August 2003. Twenty-two-year-old C.C.was found in a grassy wooded area in Niagara Falls, Ont., in January 2006.