VANCOUVER — Former Canadian Football League prospect Josh Boden is due in court Monday facing a charge of first-degree murder related to the death of his ex-girlfriend nearly a decade ago.
Boden’s former girlfriend, Kimberly Hallgarth, was killed in her home in March 2009. Police at the time would not say whether Boden was questioned and the case has remained unsolved.
In August 2008, Boden had been acquitted of theft, mischief and assault charges after Hallgarth wavered at the last minute on the witness stand. Those charges stemmed from an alleged domestic dispute that resulted in the B.C. Lions cutting ties with the receiver.
Boden is due in provincial court in Vancouver on Monday for a bail hearing after being sworn on the murder charge Saturday.
Boden, now 32, grew up playing football on the North Shore before getting a chance on the practice roster of the hometown Lions in 2006.
Since his career went off the rails following a brief stint with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2008, Boden has been in and out of the court system and jail for a slew of serious criminal allegations including assault, sexual assault, break-and-enter, uttering threats, criminal harassment and living on the avails of prostitution.
In 2011, Boden was convicted of two counts of sexual assault, one count of wilfully obstructing a police officer and one count of assaulting a police officer.
While under police surveillance in 2009, Boden had groped two women at SkyTrain stations in Vancouver and resisted arrest. In September 2012 he received a sentence of one year in jail followed by three years of probation.
His run-ins with the law continued up until an assault charge involving a female complainant as recently as May of this year, and at one point led to a rare public warning about Boden’s risk to the public from the Vancouver Police Department.
— With files from Jennifer Saltman
