Name: Toronto man granted new trial after 23 years in prison for murder
Uploaded: 2025-12-18T15:34:10.100Z
Duration: 2 min 32 s
Description: A Toronto man who spent more than two decades in prison for the murder of a little girl has been granted a new trial. Timothy Rees has maintained he was wrongfully convicted of the 1989 murder of 10-year-old Darla Thurrott. But even with a new trial, his exoneration is far from guaranteed.

A Toronto man who spent more than two decades in prison for the murder of a little girl has been granted a new trial. Timothy Rees has maintained he was wrongfully convicted of the 1989 murder of 10-year-old Darla Thurrott. But even with a new trial, his exoneration is far from guaranteed.

Toronto

Timothy Reese, who was convicted of murdering 10-year-old Darla Thurrott in 1989, has been granted a new trial by the Ontario Court of Appeal. The court determined that a miscarriage of justice occurred when a police interview with an alternate suspect was not presented during Reese's original trial.

Reese, who was released on parole in 2016, maintains his innocence and claims his confession was made under duress. The Crown has not confirmed if it will proceed with a new trial, as several key witnesses and the alternate suspect have since died.

Toronto man granted new trial after 23 years in prison for murder

Since 1989, I've been labeled a killer and I'm not, so I'm happy they recognize that and I'm no longer labeled that way. The Ontario Court of Appeal agreed that a relevant piece of evidence in the case against Timothy Reese was left out of his trial, ruling that there was a miscarriage of justice. Justice, Reese says, he is owed. You deserve justice. Yeah, I do. Unfortunately, there won't be any for Darla. Darla Thurrott was 10 years old when she was found strangled in her bedroom. Reese, 25 at the time, was an acquaintance of her mother and stayed the night. There was no evidence of forced entry, so the investigation focused on everyone in the home that night, which includes the landlord, James Raymer, whose bedroom was across from young Darla's. In my view, he should have been the accused. After he was released on parole in 2016, Reese recruited the help of lawyer James Lockyer and the non-profit, The Innocence Project, which assists the wrongfully accused. They uncovered a police interview where the landlord admits to making sexual advances on her. An interview that was never submitted as evidence in Reese's trial. If a 10-year-old girl is murdered in her bed and there's someone right across from her in his own bedroom who admits that he molested her in the past, then it's kind of two and two makes four for me. The Crown has not confirmed whether it would pursue a new trial. They wouldn't be able to rely on the same witnesses or investigators, several of whom have died in the last 36 years. The likelihood of the Crown proceeding with a new trial is essentially non-existent. The alternate suspect, the landlord, Lockyer alleges was the real killer, died in 1999. He's a far more likely killer than Tim Reese. At the time, Reese had confessed to choking Darla. It's likely what convicted him in the jury's eyes, but he has maintained that it was made under duress. Way back at that time, things were really bad and I just agreed to whatever to let me be and that proved to be the biggest mistake of my life. Tim Reese maintains his conscience is clear as he looks to clear his name. Ali Chasson, CBC News, Toronto.

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