Appeal of conviction in murder of Loretta Saunders begins today

$430.

That's how much Blake Leggette and Victoria Henneberry owed Loretta Saunders for rent to sublet her apartment in the Cowie Hill neighbourhood of Halifax.

Rather than pay that rent, Leggette and Henneberry murdered Saunders, stuffed her body in a hockey bag and took off for Ontario in her car. They stopped long enough to dispose of her remains in the woods alongside the Trans-Canada Highway in New Brunswick.

Henneberry to argue own case

Today, Henneberry is expected to begin arguing her own case in the appeal of her second-degree murder conviction.

Henneberry's handwritten notice of appeal came long after the official appeal period for her crime had expired. She argued in her notice that she'd been told she had more time, and wasn't aware it had run out.

The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal agreed to hear Henneberry's arguments, however it refused her request to appoint a lawyer to assist her in the appeal.

Because of public interest in this case, the Court of Appeal has agreed to live stream the proceedings on its website.

Saunders, a 26-year-old Inuk woman from Labrador, disappeared just before Valentine's Day in 2014. Leggette and Henneberry were arrested in southern Ontario a short time later, still in possession of Saunders's car and bank cards.

Just as their case was to go to trial in April of 2015, they both pleaded guilty — Leggette to first-degree murder and Henneberry to second-degree. They each got a life sentence.

Leggette must serve 25 years before he can begin applying for parole. Henneberry must serve 10.

Handwritten appeal claims innocence

But ever since the summer of 2015, Henneberry has been trying to rewrite that narrative. In a handwritten notice of appeal filed from her cell at the Nova Institution for Women, a women's prison in Truro, N.S., Henneberry protested her innocence.

She wrote that at the time of the murder she was under a great deal of "stress, fear, anxiety."

She claimed she experienced a panic attack due to a pre-existing condition and failed to appreciate what her guilty plea would mean. She also did her best to pin the murder entirely on her then-boyfriend, Leggette.

"Had I been aware of his intentions prior, I would have done what I could to deter him from committing such a heinous, callous, selfish and pointless offence which would have saved Ms. Saunders' life," Henneberry wrote.

Leggette not appealing conviction

Leggette is not joining in Henneberry's appeal. He paints a much different picture of her level of involvement in the crime.

When police searched his cell at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Burnside where he was being held awaiting trial, they recovered notes which appeared to be a draft for a book Leggette planned to write on his experiences.

In those notes, Leggette suggested Henneberry was an equal partner in the murder, helping him to smother the young woman as she fought for her life.

There is also cellphone video that was played at the couple's preliminary inquiry. On that video, the pair can be heard discussing the idea of killing Saunders, a couple of weeks before the murder happened.

In her appeal notice, Henneberry admits there is enough evidence to convict her of being an accessory to murder after the fact, but not to convict her of murder.

Family 'victimized' by appeal

News of the appeal has prolonged the suffering for Saunders's family.

"It seems like they keep the wounds fresh," her mother, Miriam, said in a text message to CBC News earlier in the appeal process.

She said it continues to "haunt the victim's family and we keep getting victimized."

Two days have been set aside for the appeal.