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A man who killed and dismembered his wife in southeast New Brunswick may be sentenced Monday from hospital.
Roger Hilyard Crossman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as well as improperly or indecently interfering with a body.
Crossman admits killing Marlene Cheryl Crossman, 59, at their Sackville home on Oct. 12, 2023.
He was scheduled to be sentenced last week, but it was pushed back because a report used for sentencing wasn’t completed in time as Crossman had been in hospital.
On Monday, with more than a dozen of the victim’s family members in the courtroom, defence lawyer Martin Siscoe told a judge that Crossman has been in hospital since Oct. 24.
Siscoe said Crossman has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, has only weeks to live. He isn’t seeking treatment and is applying for medical assistance in dying, or MAID.
Crown prosecutors asked for the sentencing to proceed, referring to family members who had travelled to Moncton for the hearing.
Court of King’s Bench Justice Maya Hamou said the sentencing would proceed with Crossman either on phone or video from hospital, or potentially without him.
“I’m also not prepared to adjourn this hearing because he wants to avail himself of MAID,” Hamou said. “You don’t get to opt out of your sentencing hearing.”
Crossman’s lawyer was sent to the Moncton Hospital to try to have Crossman appear in court by phone or video.
Marlene Crossman, 59, died Oct. 12, 2023, in Sackville. (Campbell’s Funeral Home)
Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
Siscoe said he believed the Crown was seeking parole eligibility to start between 20 and 25 years, adding that Crossman asked him not to argue at the hearing given his medical condition.
A prosecutor read agreed facts to the judge when Crossman pleaded guilty earlier this fall.
The facts included that Roger Crossman killed Marlene Crossman with three “sharp force injuries” to the 59-year-old woman’s chest and abdomen sometime after 7 a.m. at their King Street home.
Crossman proceeded to dismember and mutilate her body.
The judge said 10 victim impact statements have been submitted for sentencing.
