Court Affirms Faribault Man’s Assisting Suicide Conviction

The Minnesota Court of Appeals today affirmed the conviction of a Faribault man for assisting in the suicide of a British man, but reversed his conviction for attempting to assist in a Canadian woman's suicide.

The State Court of Appeals said there was sufficient evidence to convict William Melchert-Dinkel for assisting in the 2005 suicide of Mark Drybrough of Coventry, England.

The court said there was not sufficient evidence to convict the former nurse of the lesser offense of attempting to assist in the 2008 suicide of Nadia Kjouji of Ottawa, Canada.

The appeals court says Melchert-Dinkel gave Drybrough details about how to hang himself, but gave no specific instructions to Kjouji.

The Canadian woman jumped off a bridge.

The case has been in the courts for a long time and led to the state narrowing Minnesota's law against assisting suicides.

Melchert-Dinkel was convicted in 2014 for assisting the suicide of the British man and attempting to assist the suicide of the Canadian woman.