Case Study Of John Kondejewski's Crime Case

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Introduction to case:
The victim, John Kondejewski, a sergeant in the military as well as battle school instructor, was killed on May 15th, 1997 in Brandon Manitoba by the defendant, his wife, Kimberley Kondejewski, in the bedroom of their home (Sheehy 88). The couple was married for over 17 years before the proceeding occurred. Kimberly shot her husband three times that Thursday night; first shot to the chest, second and third shot were closer range, which led the police to charge her with first-degree murder (Sheehy 115). However, she also tried to end her life, fortunately she was only wounded. She even had composed a suicide note addressed to their children, Jennifer and Christopher. The judge assigned to the case was Justice Rodney H …show more content…

Garry Rainnie stated, “it was about the killing of a human being” (Sheehy 115). Clearly, Rainnie did not deny John was a cruel father, husband and person, however, he still believed Kim should be found guilty of the murder she committed. Rainnie claimed that she killed John out of Jealousy as he was going to leave her for his girlfriend, Karla Sweeting (Sheehy 89). John had asked Karla to marry him four days before his murder occurred. Rainnie used the testimonies of Jennifer and Christopher to ask the harrying question, “why did she not leave,” (Sheehy 93, 101). He also used Jennifer to show the jury that Kim was allowed out of the house. Rainnie stated that as “Kim was not isolated and imprisoned in her home, she was not a “real” battered women. ‘(Sheehy 95) However, his theory was disproven as Dr. Walker, the originator of the ‘Battered Women Syndrome theory” never stated that women must be ‘isolated and …show more content…

Wolson never denied that Kim shot her husband, however, he did not agree with the first-degree murder conviction. He believed Kim acted in self-defense to protect her children as well as her life as she felt they were in danger. John was very abusive towards Kim, he had even sent her too Winnipeg one weekend and he told her “to do it” which meant kill herself by getting into a car accident so that he could receive her life insurance. Wolson also examined both Jennifer and Christopher on the stand and concluded that their fathers abuse was constant. Jennifer told the jury that, „he had grabbed her arm..slapper her face…called her a bitch (Sheehy 92).“ She also stated that her father beat Chris „even worse (sheehy 93) than her. She stated, „He had been hit so hard by his father that he had marks on his body…had been removed by child family services for six weeks.(sheehy 93).“ Wolson argued that these statements clearly demonstrated why Kim shot John, clearly for self-defense purposes. He stated; “ what she did, she did it to defend her children She didn’t care about herself. She did it to protect her children.” (Sheehy113) As you can see, Kim clearly is a selfless mother who did absolutely everything in her power to protect her children and provide them the best life

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