Overview
- The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overturned the conviction and declared Brandon Klayme factually innocent after an appeal review found the identifying error.
- The underlying investigation began in 2018 when a 12-year-old Wisconsin girl’s phone showed 125 Kik messages from an account using the name with two underscores.
- Investigators subpoenaed the wrong Kik username with one fewer underscore, and Kik’s response gave an email that Google tied to a Canadian IP address linked by Bell Aliant to Klayme’s home.
- Halifax police arrested Klayme in 2020 despite no incriminating material on his devices; he was convicted in 2023, sentenced in 2024 to 18 months, and served the full term before continuing his appeals.
- The case shows how single-character metadata errors and heavy reliance on platform and ISP records can send an innocent person to prison and raises questions about remedies and investigative safeguards that have not yet been reported.