Dean Penney, charged in ‘Mr. Big’ sting found guilty of first-degree murder

Dean Penney guilty of first-degree murder. (Becky Daley/NTV News)

A jury has found Dean Penney guilty of first-degree murder, NTV reported.

Jurors in Newfoundland and Labrador’s Supreme Court delivered the verdict Sunday morning after deliberating since Wednesday evening. He was accused of murdering Jennifer Hillier-Penney in St. Anthony, N.L. in 2016.

RCMP officers posed as crime bosses in a “Mr. Big” sting operation designed to win Penney’s trust and extract a confession from the man.

As part of the four-year sting, officers befriended Penney, giving false names and identities, and had Penney perform various tasks for a fake criminal organization across the country.

Penney told undercover officers in November 2023, nearly seven years after Jennifer Hillier-Penney was last seen in St. Anthony, that his estranged wife died during a heated argument when he pushed her, and she unintentionally fell down a set of stairs.

He described placing Jennifer Hillier-Penney’s body in a bag, hiding it from their daughter, and eventually dumping it in the ocean.

“I took her up to the bay, where my cabin was, and just took her offshore in my boat. That’s where she is. She’ll never be seen,” Penney told an officer in November 2023.

It was one of two apparent admissions by Penney that were covertly recorded and presented as evidence by prosecutors in the trial. In a second, just days later, Penney said he struck his wife with a “mallet hammer” in an attempt to “make sure that she wouldn’t be waking up, or anything like that.”

Those recorded statements were key evidence for the crown, who argued that Penney was jealous that his estranged wife may have been starting a new relationship, and alleged Penney was motivated by a desire not to proceed with a divorce and have to split his marital assets.

Crown prosecutor Shawn Patten told the jury Penney made those statements because he wanted the criminal organization’s help to cover up the murder.

“We know he killed his wife,” Patten said in closing arguments. “He admitted it to an organization he wanted to be a part of.”

Penney’s attorney argued instead that the accused was intimidated by the fake crime bosses and was simply creating stories based on what he thought they wanted to hear.

Penney pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintained he had nothing to do with Jennifer Hillier-Penney’s disappearance.

Defence attorney Jeff Brace said during his closing arguments Tuesday there’s no definitive proof that Jennifer Hillier-Penney is even dead, and alleged police did not do enough to investigate potential sightings or alternate theories of what happened to the woman.

He said prosecutors had little evidence tying Penney to the murders, other than the two purported confessions that are inconsistent.

“A false confession can be given when your life depends on it,” Brace told jurors, arguing Penney was intimidated by the guns and the criminal activity that was purportedly on display.

Penney was arrested by the RCMP at the Deer Lake airport in December 2023, shortly after giving that second disputed confession to the undercover officers.

With files from NTV