Gasps, tears as jury finds man not guilty of murder in wife’s death

A Sarnia courtroom was filled with tension Wednesday afternoon as, after two days of deliberation, the jury returned with its verdict in a Corunna man’s first-degree murder trial in the death of his common-law wife.

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Then, he erupted with emotion as the jury foreperson announced they’d found Shawn Trowbridge not guilty.

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“What?” wasted several family members of Cheryl VanHuizen, Trowbridge’s partner of eight years before she died nearly three years ago.

On the other side of the courtroom, Trowbridge’s adult children wept and exchanged hugs. But the gasps in the section of VanHuizen supporters turned to weeping, and a couple of expletives, as Superior Court Justice Russell Raikes turned to Trowbridge and said, “You have been tried by your peers and have been found not guilty. You are free to go, sir.”

The judge bailed the gallery, escorted out by security in two sections, to keep their emotions in check whether they agreed or disagreed with the outcome. Many found that impossible following a gruelling five-week trial.

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“I can’t believe that,” VanHuizen’s sister Julie Pyette said in the parking lot while crying so hard she was short of breath. “Shawn gets away with something else.”

Trowbridge, 54, was whisked out a back door by security before he could be asked for comment, but his daughter Sydney Trowbridge said the not guilty verdict was something she was waiting to hear for the last three years.

“For someone to see the truth: That my dad’s an innocent man,” she said as tears streamed down her face. “I’m glad that there’s good people left in this world that can see the truth instead of stories that people have made up about dad.”

Trowbridge initially was arrested for manslaughter on Dec. 31, 2020, about an hour after VanHuizen, 51, was found unresponsive in their Corunna home. The charge was later upgraded to first-degree murder.

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Tyler MacDonald, Trowbridge’s criminal defense lawyer from Toronto who has ties to Sarnia, said he felt it was a shame it had to get this far.

“I always, on the evidence, saw him as innocent,” he said. “I might be biased in that regard, but I really always felt disheartened that it got this far.”

A forensic pathologist found the cause of VanHuizen’s death was external neck compressions. Rebekah Jacques also found VanHuizen had various blunt-force injuries to her face, neck, torso and arms, along with anal injuries. A broken arm from her glasses was discovered in the body bag during the autopsy in London.

Trowbridge testified they tripped in the hallway as they were heading to the bedroom to have sex and he fell on top of her. After laughing it off, they continued and eventually engaged in sexual chocking, something they’d done about 15 times over the prior four years, when she suddenly went limp, he said. She never regained consciousness.

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But the Crown argued there was an attack in the bedroom, based in part on damage discovered to the master bedroom door, which included a beating, a sexual assault, and an intentional killing. It was in response to a fight they had that night on the heels of a family Christmas party, the prosecutors told the jury.

“We respect the jury’s verdict and they worked hard and this is part of the process,” assistant Crown attorney Jonathan Lall said afterwards.

Lall added he couldn’t say if the Crown will appeal the decision.

“My wife and her family are devastated,” texted Kevin Kemmis, a brother-in-law of VanHuizen who was in court every day for the five-week trial.

VanHuizen’s son Connor VanHuizen declined to comment after the result came in. But Pyette was frustrated by some things she felt weren’t able to be included as evidence in court.

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“She wasn’t into kinky sex. She wasn’t into any of that,” she said.

For both sides of the families, waiting about 28 hours for a verdict was difficult.

“Heartbreaking,” Sydney Trowbridge said. “And terrifying.”

It wasn’t easy on the lawyers, either.

“It’s nerve-wracking, but it’s also what we do,” said Sarah Donohue, a local criminal defense lawyer who worked alongside MacDonald.

The jury started deliberating around 11 am Tuesday, almost exactly five weeks after they were selected and the 54-year-old boilermaker pleaded not guilty. Unable to reach a verdict nine hours later, the 12-person panel was sent to a nearby hotel and ordered to return by 9:30 am Wednesday. Five hours later they came back with their decision.

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The jury was given four options for verdicts by Raikes, and they had to be unanimous: not guilty; not guilty of first-degree murder but guilty of manslaughter; not guilty of first-degree murder but guilty of second-degree murder; or guilty as charged.

Trowbridge, who was out on $170,000 lease for the past two years, testified in his own defense after dozens of family members, police, paramedics, firefighters and expert witnesses took to the stand.

This was one of 17 homicide cases in Sarnia-Lambton between March 2020 and October 2022, one of the deadliest two years in the region in recent memory. But it also took place during a heightened phase of five cases in less than four weeks that stretched local police resources and incited fear among residents.

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