A Sundre-area woman convicted of manslaughter in the December 2010 shooting death of her husband has lost her application to appeal the conviction.
The Alberta Court of Appeal dismissed Heather Wilson Duncan's application on Dec. 16, meaning she will have to serve out the remainder of her four-year sentence.
Her lawyer, Jim Butlin, had argued that the trial justice erred in his instructions to the jury. The court of appeal rejected that argument.
Duncan has served about three months of pre-trial and post-trial custody after being convicted on Dec. 9, 2013 in the death of Barry Duncan.
He was shot once in the head on the couple's Sundre-area acreage south of Bergen on Dec. 10, 2010. He died at the scene.
During her trial, Heather Duncan testified her husband pushed a shotgun at her during an argument over Christmas decorations and the gun discharged.
Both parties had been drinking heavily in the time leading up to the shooting.
In a 911 call immediately after the shooting, Duncan told the dispatcher: “I killed him. I killed my husband. I just killed a person. He's dead in the living room. My husband is dead.”
Butlin could not be immediately reached for comment.
