Alicia Murphy is a free woman – for now.

A Yukon Supreme Court judge ordered last month that the second-degree murder charge Murphy faces in connection with the 2008 death of Evangeline Billy be stayed until the Crown pays for her lawyer of choice.

The Crown has refused to do so, and is appealing the decision.

But Murphy, 34, remained in custody at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre until Wednesday, charged with breaching her bail conditions in September.

After she entered guilty pleas to two – sneaking out while under house arrest and drinking alcohol – territorial court judge Michael Cozens sentenced her Wednesday afternoon to 30 days for each.

Given the time Murphy spent in custody after she was arrested for the September breaches, she was released from jail same-day.

Earlier this week, Crown prosecutor David McWhinnie and Murphy’s lawyer, Jennie Cunningham, had disagreed on what her sentence should be for the breaches, given Murphy no longer faces the murder charge for which she was granted bail.

McWhinnie said the seriousness of the underlying alleged offence, which Murphy was still facing when she was released on bail, made the breaches more serious.

He proposed three to six months, consecutive, on each breach.

Cunningham argued for 30 days on each, served concurrently.

Her client is innocent of murder until proved guilty, she said.

Consequently, a steeper sentence for the breaches because of the seriousness of the original alleged crime isn’t appropriate, she said.

A 30-day sentence for a breach is fairly typical.

Cozens said he wasn’t convinced Murphy should be sentenced outside of that range. He acknowledged it was an “unusual” situation, given the stayed murder charge.

“Even if she were facing the charge of murder, she would still be entitled to the presumption of innocence,” he said in his decision.

“She is not in the same position as an offender who has been determined to be guilty of the underlying offence at the time of being sentenced for the breach.”

Murphy stood trial in 2009 for Billy’s beating and drowning in the Yukon River. She successfully appealed earlier this year. A retrial was tentatively scheduled for 2015.

The murder charge was stayed last month as a result of an application by Cunningham.

The woman applied for legal aid after her appeal, specifying that she wanted Cunningham, who worked with her on the appeal, to represent her at the retrial as well.

But the Yukon Legal Services Society assigned her Donald Campbell, a lawyer in Kamloops, B.C.

Murphy appealed that decision, again requesting Cunningham. Legal services denied that, citing Campbell’s experience defending murder charges and “using common sense when resolving matters.”

The board further stated in its letter that it “is not required to provide a client with their choice of counsel,” and if Murphy didn’t want Campbell, she could pay for her own lawyer.

In court, Cunningham argued this amounted to a denial of legal aid.

Although there’s no “absolute right” to state-funded counsel of choice, there is an entitlement to choose, she said.

Justice Leigh Gower agreed.

“I do not want to fall into the trap of reviewing Legal Aid’s decision, but I cannot help observing that, in the present circumstances, the board’s suggestion here is simply unrealistic,” he wrote in last month’s decision.

“It does not give rise to a genuine choice on the part of the accused.”

He ordered the Crown to pay for Cunningham to represent Murphy.

Until then, her murder charge is dropped.

The Crown’s appeal, filed Nov. 24, claims seven ways Gower erred in his ruling, including that he should not have viewed the refusal to appoint Murphy’s preferred lawyer as a denial of legal aid.

A date will be set tomorrow for the appeal to be heard in Vancouver in the new year.

The second-degree murder charge can be brought back.