Convicted Hell’s Angels hitman gets public funding for murder appeal

Thirteen years after his conviction on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, a Nova Scotia man has been granted a publicly funded attorney for his appeal.


A jury convicted Dean Daniel Kelsie following a trial in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia before Justice Felix A. Cacchione.


Witnesses at his March 2003 trial said Kelsie was a Hell’s Angels hitman who pulled the trigger when Sean Simmons, 31, was shot in the head in the lobby of an apartment building in north-end Dartmouth. Simmons had run afoul of the Hells Angels, the jury heard.


Three other men were also convicted in the case. Kelsie, now 43, is serving a life sentence at Cowansville Institution in Quebec, with no possibility of parole for 25 years.


He filed an appeal of the conviction on Nov. 3, 2003. The appeal has not yet been set down for argument.

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