Pamela Kosmack may have known her accused killer, but they were anything but friends.

Both Kosmack and Marc Leduc were regulars at the rough-and-tumble Royal Britannia Pub, a since-closed watering hole on Richmond Road.

They were also members of the same chat group, and the jury at Leduc’s first-degree murder trial has heard from prosecutors that when another user posted a message asking about Kosmack’s absence on the site, it was Leduc who posted a nasty response saying, “You don’t need to know, she’s probably out whoring herself.”

In a chilling detail, prosecutors have told the jury that the accused killer was thinking about going to Kosmack’s funeral but no one has testified about it yet.

Kosmack, a 39-year-old mom, was strangled off a bike path near Britannia Park in 2008. Her body was found half-naked and severely beaten about the head, and had bite marks on it. 

She fought for her life, the jury heard. Leduc is also on trial for the 2011 sex killing of Leeanne Lawson, whose body was found early Sept. 2, 2011 in a parking lot off of King Edward Avenue, not far from the shelter she called home.

She, too, was found half-naked and beaten. Her body, like Kosmack’s, had bite marks on it.

Both women were vulnerable and worked as prostitutes to feed their hard drug habits.

The jury is first hearing details about the Kosmack homicide, and on Friday it heard about her last hours of life and the exhaustive police investigation that followed.

Marc Leduc sketch in the Ottawa courthouse Feb. 7, 2013.

The night before her body was found, Kosmack showed up at a friend’s place. She was on edge and looking for a fix, according to a witness who testified that her boyfriend went on a drug run to hook her up.

That same night, she hit the pub around 10 p.m., according to the bouncer who worked the June 3 shift.

Mohamad Abdallah testified that she tried to bum money off him for a drink and described her as a “nice lady” with good humour. He told court he had to ban her from the pub a month earlier for downing drinks from other tables. Abdallah also said he once had to physically subdue and remove a “strong” Leduc from the pub. It wasn’t explained why he was bounced.

The bouncer couldn’t recall ever seeing Kosmack with Leduc at the pub. But the jury has heard that Leduc and Kosmack knew each other because she asked him for toonies so often he nicknamed her “Toonie.”

Abdallah also testified that when he was interviewed by police he was not asked about Leduc, a regular at the pub.

Sgt. Pamela Scharf, the lead indent officer, guided the jury through the crime scene, a grassy clearing off a bike path.

Under examination-in-chief by Crown attorney James Cavanagh, the officer detailed graphic photographs and collected evidence, ranging from Kosmack’s bloodstained clothes to a bracelet to a piece of paper with someone’s phone number on it. The jury has heard that police collected DNA evidence from the scene and that the chances of it matching someone other than Leduc are one in the quadrillions. 

The identification officer also testified that a review of the scene suggests Kosmack, at some point, may have been dragged.

The jury has been told that Leduc also knew Lawson from the shelter, where he was known for calling sex-trade workers “dirty whores who ruined families.”

The Crown has told the jury that Leduc had both the motive and opportunity to kill.

The trial, presided over by Ontario Superior Court Justice Hugh McLean, continues.

gdimmock@postmedia.com

www.twitter.com/crimegarden

The accused killers — secret lovers who worked the same shifts as OC Transpo drivers — sat quietly, a few feet apart in the prisoner’s box Thursday as their first-degree murder trial heard testimony from a clairvoyant they hired.

Susanne Shields, a civil servant and part-time clairvoyant who says she can speak to the dead, recalled for the court the hateful nicknames that Bhupinderpal Gill and his mistress, Gurpreet Ronald, used to describe Jagtar Gill, who was slain in her Barrhaven home on her wedding anniversary in January 2014 as she was recovering from surgery in the family room. Her throat was slashed and her head bludgeoned.

Ronald called the victim “The Devil” and Gill called his wife “Nazi woman,” the witness testified. “Ronald said she was just a horrible, evil woman,” Shields said.

During a 2012 session to discuss the future, Ronald said “we will do anything to be together,” the clairvoyant recalled.

Gill, a man of few words, just nodded Yes, she recounted.

Bhupinderpal Gill is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of his wife, Jagtar Gill.

Gurpreet Ronald is his co-accused.

It was crystal clear, according to the clairvoyant, that the secret lovers despised Jagtar Gill.

“She was the Nazi woman. The kids would often call her that … the dictator. She made the rules,” she testified.

She advised Gill not to talk about anyone like that, let alone his wife.

In sometimes tearful testimony, the clairvoyant revealed intimate details about the marriages of the accused killers: Ronald thought her husband was a lousy bread winner and she wanted an out. And Gill, who often called his wife “Hitler woman,” said divorce was not an option for fear he’d lose his children.

Shields, who keeps a downtown office for her part-time business as a clairvoyant — she mentioned the address while on the stand — also has a third line of “amateur” work flipping houses, telling court that she’s moved 11 of them.

The accused killers didn’t just hire her for her psychic powers. Both the Gills and Ronald were selling their homes and they hired the clairvoyant to stage them using feng shui.

The clairvoyant told court that she didn’t invent the ancient Chinese system of harmony, and noted that both Disneyland and Donald Trump use it. The Gills’ home sold three weeks after the clairvoyant did an eight-hour consultation at their home.

When asked about Jagtar Gill, she dabbed at tears and described her as forever generous, saying she cooked her meals to bring home, on top of the $2,000 bill for staging the Barrhaven home.

She also testified that Jagtar Gill suspected her husband was cheating on her, and recounted the time Jagtar followed the secret lovers on their way to OC Transpo early one morning and, at a stop, asked out of her car window if they were having an affair.

Earlier Thursday, Ronald’s defence lawyer, Michael Smith, questioned the police’s handling of the crime scene, establishing that some 19 people were in and out of it, walking around, with someone leaving a foot impression on a key piece of evidence, and another walking close to the deceased, accidentally kicking over a cup on the floor.

The police got around to the process of eliminating footwear impressions one year later, and compared the impressions of eight police officers, but didn’t do so for all the other people in the house — from paramedics, to Gill, his daughter, one of her friends, two victim-crisis workers and the coroner.

The footwear impression on the tip of a bloody latex glove — the ring finger — was not good enough to compare to others with 100 per cent certainty, Ottawa police Const. Julie Dobler testified.

The police theory, adopted by the Crown, is that the secret lovers conspired to kill Jagtar Gill. Her husband and mistress have pleaded not guilty and Bhupinderpal Gill is expected to testify in his own defence.

The trial before Ontario Superior Court Justice Julianne Parfett continues Friday.

gdimmock@postmedia.com
www.twitter.com/crimegarden

Bhupinderpal Gill hid the bloody murder weapon not because he killed his wife, but rather out of fear he’d be blamed for it, court heard on Friday.

It was just before 1 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2014, when Gill and his daughter returned home and made the horrifying discovery that his wife, Jagtar Gill, had been slashed and bludgeoned to death in their Barrhaven home. His daughter was screaming. Her father picked up one of the weapons — a bloodstained weightlifting bar — to arm himself as he went upstairs and down looking for an intruder, his lawyer said. 

“His terror was magnified because he thought the killer, the intruder, might still be in the house,” defence lawyer James Harbic told the jury at Gill’s first-degree murder trial on Friday. 

OC Transpo drivers and secret lovers Bhupinderpal Gill, 40, and Gurpreet Ronald, 37, are on trial for the killing. Police found incriminating DNA evidence against Ronald but the Crown’s case against Gill is absent of any physical evidence linking him to the killing.

On Friday, after six weeks of trial, his lawyer finally revealed Gill’s side of the story: Once he checked the house for an intruder, it dawned on him that he was holding the bloody weapon used in the killing of his wife, at the scene of the killing. 

It was at this point in time, Harbic told the jury, that Gill was overcome with an intense fear that “they’d put this on me.”

His mind raced back to 2004 when his in-laws had accused him of threatening to kill his wife, the lawyer said, adding that it haunted Gill, and here he was, 10 years later, now holding a weapon used in the killing of his wife.

He hid the weightlifting bar in the basement in a box and then started washing the bloody knives, Harbic said, adding that Gill had used them that morning to make an omelette and feared his fingerprints were still on them.

“It was the worst mistake of his life,” his lawyer told the jury.

The lawyer also told the jury that Gill never threatened to kill his wife and was falsely accused, as he was on Friday as he sat in the prisoner’s box next to his mistress on trial for his wife’s killing.

The lawyer tried to dismantle the police theory that the secret lovers plotted to kill Jagtar Gill so they could be together. The theory has Ronald killing Jagtar while Bhupinderpal and his daughter ran errands at a prescribed time.

The reality is that Gill’s affair with Ronald ended four months before the killing, Harbic told the jury. The lawyer also suggested that, in fact, Ronald was having another affair with another OC Transpo driver in the weeks leading to the killing.

Gill took the stand on Friday afternoon and testified that just two days after his arranged marriage to Jagtar, his in-laws branded him as a no-account street rat.

“I was not worthy of Jagtar,” Gill said through an interpreter. 

It was Jagtar Gill who sponsored Bhupinderpal so he could leave India for a better life in Ottawa.

He came to Ottawa with next to nothing in 1997. He delivered newspapers in the morning and pizza at night. He worked on an electronics assembly line, drove a cab and later an OC Transpo bus. By 2014, Gill’s assets were worth $1.5 million. 

“Our married life was good but she had chronic medical problems,” he recalled.

They stopped sleeping together in 2008 but he told the jury: “I loved her as the mother of my three children and I love her as a wife.”

Gill has always maintained that he had nothing to do with his wife’s killing. His testimony continues on Monday morning at the Elgin Street courthouse in Room No. 34. 

http://gdimmock@postmedia.com

http://www.twitter.com/crimegarden

The last accomplice on trial for the 2010 execution-style killing of Barrhaven teenager Michael Swan was found guilty Thursday as the so-called mastermind behind the botched marijuana and money robbery.

Sam Tsega, 24, had been on trial for second-degree murder, but Ontario Superior Court Justice Catherine Aitken spared him a murder conviction and instead found him guilty of manslaughter.

Tsega was the Ottawa connection for his hardened gang-banger friends, known as the Toronto 3. He told them they could find money and marijuana at Swan’s home and helped them case the house before the killing.

Without Tsega, the police and later prosecutors theorized, the Feb. 22, 2010 murder would never have happened.

The judge said the Crown failed to prove an essential element of second-degree murder, namely that Tsega, who was not at the scene of the crime, knew the robbery plot would end in murder. 

“It was a tragic and senseless killing that has forever changed the fabric of the Barrhaven community,” the judge told court.

The judge said she wished society had the ability to turn back time on “the recklessness of youth” that has left the victim’s family “forever scarred.”

The manslaughter conviction follows six years of legal proceedings for Swan’s family and friends. His parents — admired by both the Crown and defence — have withstood a painfully long trip through the criminal justice system. They have sat quietly in court, across four convictions, listening to horrifying details about their 19-year-old son’s last moments in life. At best, they say, they felt like spectators, victimized by it all.

It was just after midnight when three masked men, dressed in black with handguns drawn, stormed Michael Swan‘s home and forced him and his friends to their knees at gunpoint.

The teenage marijuana seller had been watching hockey with his friends when the men from Toronto came to rob him. The three asked him where he kept his dope and his money, but Swan wouldn’t give it up. He even refused after they pressed a gun into his back.

“I don’t know,” Swan told them.

Those were his last words.

They shot him. The bullet pierced his heart. He was dead in less than a minute.

The next in line for questioning was his girlfriend.

On her knees, at gunpoint, and having just seen her boyfriend executed, she told them everything they wanted to know.

The men forced the survivors into a basement sauna and told them to stay put as the three fled with their stolen loot, including video games.

Swan‘s girlfriend could be heard screaming for help as police arrived. They tried in vain to revive Swan but there was nothing they could do to save him.

The men left for Toronto with almost two kilograms of weed and $3,000, and they would have got away if not for a cellphone that police were able to track. Police arrested them hours later on the 401.

Sam Tsega, though convicted in the killing Thursday, walked out the front door of the Elgin Street courthouse. He’s still on bail awaiting sentencing but prosecutors are expected to argue that he belongs in jail until then.

Michael Swan’s family is devastated. His parents don’t celebrate Christmas anymore even though it used to be his mother’s favourite time of the year. She used to spend weeks decorating but these days they don’t even put up a tree. They skip birthdays, too. They say it’s been too hard to celebrate anything since their son’s death.

Tsega is the final accomplice to be convicted. Kristopher McLellan, the shooter, was convicted of first-degree murder, and the other two masked accomplices, Kyle Mullen and Dylon Barnett, were convicted of second-degree murder.

At the sentencing hearing last year for Dylon Barnett, Michael Swan’s father, Dale, stood up in court to finally put a human face on his family’s tragedy. 

Swan, a private man, told court: “I take exception that I have to do this in open court and before one of the very individuals responsible for my son’s death. This, in itself, I consider a form of victimization, but I realize this will be my only opportunity to try to put a human face on what has been, up to now a very cold, clinical, detached legal process.”

It was a moving victim-impact statement.

He told court: “As a father, I consider myself a failure. Ultimately, it was my job to protect my child, to identify the dangers and do whatever was required to deal with them. I thought I was doing this, but it proved not to be enough. I must live with this guilt for the rest of my life.”

At the same sentencing hearing last year, the victim’s tearful mother, Rea, told court her life will never be the same.

“Just enjoying a beautiful sunny day, a good meal or even a laugh at a good joke brings with it a feeling of guilt,” she said. “How can I enjoy these things? My son is dead … I have been robbed of my son and the joys of life. … There remains a large hole in my heart that will never go away.

They described their dead son as a natural athlete who could make you laugh. And, they said, he never held a grudge.

Swan sold only marijuana, and loved to smoke it while watching hockey in his bedroom like many suburban teens.

He spent the last night of his life with his girlfriend, watching Olympic hockey.

And so for money and weed, young Michael Swan was executed in his own bedroom.

Tsega, wearing a suit, walked out of court Thursday a free man for another day, awaiting his sentence.

The maximum penalty for manslaughter is life in prison.

gdimmock@postmedia.com

www.twitter.com/crimegarden

Graffiti artist Drone and his girlfriend worked for 10 nights to create this tribute to slain Barrhaven teen Michael Swan.

Gurpreet Ronald says she wishes she had just turned a heel the day she found her secret lover’s wife dead. 

It was Jan. 29, 2014, and Ronald said she had gone to Jagtar Gill’s house in Barrhaven to pay a visit and pick up some tools. Nobody answered the unlocked door, so she let herself in, took her shoes off and hung up her coat. She called out “Hello,” but all she heard was the TV in the background.

She was walking toward to the kitchen, she said, when she made the horrifying discovery. The body of Jagtar Gill, slashed and bludgeoned to death, lay in a pool of blood on the living-room floor. 

“I was shocked. … She was on her back. … I saw her neck cut off, it was wide open. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I was freaking out,” Ronald testified at her murder trial Wednesday.

Ronald, 37, took the stand for a second day to try to explain away the incriminating evidence against her — from how her blood was found at the scene to why she hid the weapon used to kill Gill.

Ronald and her lover, Bhupinderpal Gill, 40, are on trial for the 2014 killing of his wife. The police theory is that the accused, both OC Transpo drivers, conspired to kill her so they could finally be together.

Ronald has insisted she is innocent, but her account of what happened the day of the killing has gone untold until now. 

She was running out of breath, she said. She may have screamed or yelled.

She thought she was going to faint, so she steadied herself with her hands and feet on the bloody living-room floor.

“I felt something under my feet. I saw a knife. I think I grabbed it. It was my right hand. I had touched the knife, then I threw it on the floor,” she told the jury.

“I was nervous and scared. I wanted to walk away from it.”

She almost did walk away, but when she got to the front door, she realized she had blood on her hands, she said. And it was the blood of her secret lover’s wife.

She figured she’d be blamed for the killing because she was the mistress, she testified. Shaking in fear, she said she put on latex gloves and wiped her fingerprints off the bloody knife.

She was shaking so much she somehow cut herself. “I don’t know how. I was wiping and shaking. I nicked my hand, my finger … I saw I was bleeding,” she testified.

She thought she was going to faint again so she drank water from the tap in the kitchen sink. 

Then, to explain how police found her blood upstairs, Ronald testified that she went looking for a Band-Aid.

Ronald, who has insisted her innocence, gave her account under examination in chief by her lawyer, Michael Smith.

“You don’t call 911? You don’t call for help?” Smith asked.

“No. Because I would be blamed. … I’m standing there with the knife,” Ronald explained.

“I only thought about me — to protect me at that time,” she said.

She left with a bloody glove and knife, and went home.

“I was freaking out. I didn’t know what to do,” she recalled.

She called her lover in a panic. She asked Bhupinderpal Gill: “Do you know what’s going on? What the f—!”

“He just said he was busy and he hung up on me quickly,” Ronald said.

She called him back on his cellphone two minutes later at 12:38 p.m. Gill said he was at Sobeys so she went there after catching her breath.

Gill and his daughter were at the cash. She says she wanted to ask him what had happened at his place, but his daughter was there, and she was “holding back emotions” so all she asked him was if he wanted to go to Ikea with her.

He said no and mentioned he was expecting a guest at his place for 1 p.m.

She ended up dumping the bloody glove and knife along an NCC trail. (That evidence was found by a maintenance man who called police).

She later went home and cooked supper for her family.

It wasn’t long before the police came calling. It was around 9:30 p.m. and her kids were asleep so she asked the officer to whisper.

Then she started lying, telling the officer she didn’t know Jagtar and Bhupinderpal Gill.

“After what I had just seen, I wanted to distance myself from it,” Ronald said.

By the end of the 40-minute chat with the officer, Ronald told a different story, saying she knew them, worked with Bhupinderpal, styled his wife’s hair and that their children played together.

No matter the lies she told police, Ronald insists she had nothing to do with the killing and only happened upon it after the fact. 

The court has heard about a surprise alibi that has her having tea with a doctor at the time of the killing.

Jagtar Gill was killed on the 17th anniversary of her arranged marriage. She had been home recovering from surgery. 

The trial continues Thursday in Room No. 34 at the Elgin Street courthouse with Ronald back on the stand.

gdimmock@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/crimegarden

Gurpreet Ronald remained unshaken on Thursday as a lawyer insisted that she acted alone when she allegedly killed her lover’s wife in a jealous rage.

The attack came from her lover’s defence lawyer, James Harbic, who did his best to distance his client – Bhupinderpal Gill – from the 2014 killing of his wife, Jagtar Gill.

“You were feeling adrift, abandoned, and angry and you took it out on Jagtar with the hopes that one day you would be with Gill. Isn’t that the truth?” Harbic charged.

But Ronald flatly rejected the claim, saying she was no longer interested in him. “The intimacy was not there,” she told court.

It was Ronald’s third day on the stand in her own defence. Ronald, 37, and Gill, 41, are on trial for the Jan. 29. 2014 killing of Jagtar Gill, 43. She was slashed and bludgeoned to death in her Barrhaven home on the 17th anniversary of her arranged marriage.

Under cross-examination, Ronald repeatedly denied having anything to do with the killing and often gave short answers like “Nope” and “That never happened.”

The defence lawyer said Ronald alone planned and executed the killing, then fabricated an alibi to cover her tracks. The lawyer also claimed it was Ronald who disconnected the phone so Jagtar Gill couldn’t call 911 for help.

“I never did such thing,” Ronald countered.

The lawyer also branded Ronald as unstable, but she stood her ground, saying: “I did not have a complete emotional breakdown.”

Ronald has told the jury that she had nothing to do with the killing and only happened upon it after the fact. She says she was having tea with a doctor at the time of the murder.

She has explained away incriminating evidence against her – including her blood found at the scene and the fact that she dumped a bloody knife and gloves along an NCC trail.

Ronald said she was in shock, and felt like she was going to faint after making the horrifying discovery. She says she steadied herself on the living-room floor, and accidentally stepped on the bloody knife so she picked it up and threw it down. 

She feared that she’d be blamed for the killing because she was the mistress. So she put on latex gloves and wiped her prints off the bloody knife. She was shaking so much she said she accidentally cut herself on the knife. She then went looking for a BAND-AID upstairs, and said that’s how her blood got in the master bedroom, closet and bathroom. She also says she didn’t call 911 out of fear the murder would be pinned on her.

She said she was only thinking about protecting herself.

The police theory is that the accused, both OC Transpo drivers, conspired to kill Jagtar Gill so they could be together.

In three days of testimony, Ronald has only succumbed to emotion when she was talking about her children, whom she hasn’t seen since her April 8, 2014 arrest. 

“We were really close. I miss them every day, every minute,” Ronald testified on Thursday.

The trial continues Friday with Ronald back on the stand.

gdimmock@postmedia.com

At 10:58 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2014, Gurpreet Ronald looked out her front window and waved to Jagtar Gill’s daughter as the little girl and her father, Bhupinderpal Gill, drove by on their way to run errands. She called Bhupinderpal, her longtime secret lover, and asked where he was going.

Ronald then went over to her lover’s Barrhaven home and killed his wife, Jagtar Gill, in cold blood. She slashed her repeatedly, slit her throat, then beat her some 20 times with a weightlifting bar. Jagtar, 43, was helpless as she lay in the living room recovering from surgery on what was the 17th anniversary of her doomed, arranged marriage.

Then the killer went to Sobeys to meet up with Bhupinderpal and his daughter. Inside the grocery store, Ronald hugged her victim’s daughter.

Days later, it was Ronald, 37, who called her lover and fellow OC Transpo bus driver, and asked if she could take his grieving children out for pizza and a movie so that they could return to normal. He said no and that the children had yet to get back to “normal.”

On Wednesday, Ronald and Bhupinderpal sat expressionless as a jury convicted them of murder in the first-degree after six days of deliberation. They sat unmoved as they had for most of the nine weeks of sometimes horrifying evidence.

The jury — five women, seven men — didn’t buy their wild cover stories about how they had just happened on the murder scene after the fact and how they had hidden the murder weapons for fear they’d be blamed for the killing. Jurors instead accepted the police theory that the longtime lovers had killed Jagtar Gill so they could be together.

Related

• 'We are all heartbroken': Read the full victim impact statement from Jagtar Gill's family
• Boswell: Police shouldn't deceive the news media – even to catch a killer
• Gill murder trial: A timeline

The packed courtroom was remarkably silent in the moments leading to the guilty verdicts, which drew applause and cheers from the gallery. Some of the victim’s family members hugged one another tight, and cried, then prayed aloud that justice had finally been served.

The killers each stood separately and whispered that they didn’t wish to address the court.

Jagtar Gill’s niece Ramandap Chahal, 23, had plenty to say, however, in a moving, unvarnished victim-impact statement drafted by grandparents Ajit Singh, 73, and Jagir Kaur, 71.

They called Bhupinderpal Gill, 41, a “waste of flesh” who, along with his mistress, should be shown no mercy in prison. 

“The best way we can describe our grief to the fortunate people who have never had to experience the murder of a loved one is to imagine the worst emotional pain that you’ve ever experienced in your life, and then multiply it by a thousand,” she told court.

“There is no closure as we so often hear. There is no ‘moving on.’ … There is nothing, and we mean absolutely nothing, that makes you feel better. They say ‘Time heals all wounds,’ but we have to disagree. The only thing time has done for our family is to move the tragic loss of Jagtar further away. It hasn’t made it better.”

Their world, she said, has been shattered. No more birthdays, no more backyard gatherings, nothing left to celebrate. Jagtar Gill’s children have been robbed of their mother’s love, and have nightmares to this day about the horror she suffered. They said Jagtar Gill was the kind of mother who gave and gave and gave. “Jagtar had a heart as big as the world,” the niece said.

The family also told court that it is unfortunate Canada does not have the death penalty.

“They thought it out, planned it, and then these cowards took Jagtar’s last breath. They inflicted on her unimaginable pain and suffering. Even more agonizing is that Bhupinderpal and Gurpreet did not have the courage to stand up, take the blame and be truthful,” the niece told court.

Though Bhupinderpal Gill didn’t address the court after he was found guilty of killing his wife, he expressed much emotion moments later down in the cell blocks of the Elgin Street courthouse.

Tears in his eyes, he maintained his innocence in a meeting with his lawyers James and Robert Harbic.

“He was devastated that the jury convicted him. He said ‘How could this happen? I’m an innocent man,’” James Harbic told the Citizen.

It couldn’t have been a surprise to him, however, for it was Bhupinderpal Gill who had told a police detective in an interview: “I’m screwed.” No matter what angle you looked at it from, he looked guilty, he said to the detective. 

Minutes after the guilty verdicts, Gurpreet Ronald also met with her lawyers.

Defence lawyer Michael Smith said she’s confused by the decision, clearly disappointed and exhausted.

Jagtar Gill’s parents, the ones who wrote the victim-impact statement, drafted different versions of it. Sometimes the letter was angry, other times sorrowful, and sometimes it made them smile at the victim’s wonderful memory. But every version, they said, was painful.

The victim, by all accounts, conquered much hardship in her troubled marriage and was known as the compassionate one, always the first to lend a hand and always the first to call you on your birthday.

Her killers, both OC Transpo drivers, have been condemned to prison for life, with no parole eligibility for 25 years.

The victim’s parents hope her killers are denied parole and spend the rest of their lives in prison.

In keeping with her wishes, Jagtar Gill’s ashes will be scattered in India, where her family hopes her soul can finally be free from the horrors of her married life in Barrhaven.

gdimmock@postmedia.com

www.twitter.com/crimegarden

Jagtar Gill’s ‘s niece Ramandeep Chahal, mother Jagir Kaur and father Ajit Singh talk to the media outside the courthouse in Ottawa Wednesday July 20, 2016.

Months before Gurpreet Ronald went on trial for the 2014 killing of her secret lover’s wife, her defence lawyer filed a motion asking the judge to recuse herself on grounds of alleged bias after she told court that the accused was “capable of a great deal of deceit and deviousness.”

Ontario Superior Court Justice Julianne Parfett made the comments in bail court, and before hearing any testimony from Ronald.

Ronald and her secret lover Bhupinderpal Gill were found guilty by a jury on Wednesday in the Jan. 29, 2014 killing of Jagtar Gill.

Evidence at bail hearings is covered by a standard publication ban until the end of trial. Now that the trial is over, the motion for the judge to recuse herself can be reported.

Parfett was asked to step down as trial judge in February in an unsuccessful motion filed by defence lawyer Michael Smith.

The defence lawyer focused on comments the judge made during his client’s bail hearing. Ronald’s sister had just testified as a potential surety, and Justice Parfett, in denying bail, said it was unlikely that she could control her sister if she were granted bail.

The judge said the witness’s knowledge of her sister was astonishingly limited given that her evidence was that they spoke on the phone daily and saw one another two to three times a week.

The judge said that despite their level of contact, the proposed surety knew next to nothing about her sister.

“She was unaware that (Ronald’s) marriage was in difficulties or that (she) was having an affair,” the judge said.

Parfett then noted that while the sister knew that Bhupinderpal Gill was a constant presence in Ronald’s life, “it never once occurred to (her) that she ought to question this relationship.”

Then the judge said this about Ronald:

“(She) lied with impunity to her sister about very significant aspects of her life and her sister was oblivious. I can only conclude that (Ronald) is someone who is capable of a great deal of deceit and deviousness.”

In a March 9 decision, the judge ruled on the motion about herself, and concluded that she was not biased and could continue on as the trial judge, which she did.

During the trial on July 5, the same defence lawyer also complained about the judge’s behaviour during Ronald’s testimony.

In the absence of the jury, Michael Smith complained that the judge had rolled her eyes, tilted her head back, folded her arms and at one point, stopped taking notes while Ronald testified in her own defence.

The lawyer noted that the judge’s reaction to his client’s version of events may have had a “negative impact” on Ronald’s trial in the eyes of jurors who follow instruction and guidance from the presiding judge.

Justice Parfett replied that she was not aware and said she would try not to react to Ronald’s testimony. 

 Gill and Ronald, former OC Transpo drivers, have been condemned to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years. 

Jagtar Gill was slashed and bludgeoned to death on the living room floor of her Barrhaven home on the 17th wedding anniversary of her arranged marriage.

gdimmock@postmedia.com

http://www.twitter.com/crimegarden

Police saved journalists’ integrity

Re: False Reports, Fine Words, police manipulating media in Gill case ethically suspect, July 21.

Randy Boswell’s presumption that “no journalist would collaborate with police in disseminating false reports” gives weight to the strategic decision by police to involve the media in this ruse, thus saving the media from making that ethical choice. 

The ethics and legality of any evidence obtained in all criminal investigations are tested through the required disclosure of investigative techniques used by the police to the accused, a challenge by defence counsel on the legality of such techniques, and a judgment by the court that the acceptance of resulting evidence would not bring the administration of justice into disrepute. These tests were met in the Gill case.

“Duping” unwitting journalists in an effort to gather key evidence in a serious criminal case actually protects the media from any perception that it has been complicit as an agent of state authority.

Bill Adams, Law Enforcement Technical Adviser, ci2i Consulting, Ottawa

End can justify the means

All I can say, Mr. Boswell, is that sometimes the end does justify the means. Were it not for this interesting if not unusual police tactic, Mrs. Gill’s murderer(s) might well have gone free. Bravo, Ottawa Police!

Marcel Lafontaine,  St-Albert

Gill verdict shows justice system works

Kudos to the Ottawa Police Service for putting together one of the most complicated murder investigations in its history. Police used some very inventive investigative techniques to bring the perpetrators of this horrific slaughter to justice. It was also nice to see that the jury was able to follow the evidentiary trail and was not swayed by the lies of the two accused.

This guilty verdict should restore the notion that our justice system is working, for many who have doubts.

Larry Comeau, Ottawa

Blues Jays beat Bluesfest on accessibility

Re: Concert goers criticize Bluesfest’s accessibility policy, July 20.

I read Amy Gibson’s story regarding her accessibility issues at Bluesfest.  The less than “communicative communication” she and your reporter received from the festival people is similar to my experience the summer Bob Dylan played at Bluesfest.

Getting into the grounds with a four-wheel walker was less than “accessible.” However, not being allowed to have my wife sit with me was worse. Only disabled people were allowed in what I called that night “the gimps pen.” We sat cordoned off, looking like a “spectacle within a spectacle.” I have never gone back and on reading Amy’s story, I doubt I will. This seems to not bother these festival people as we are a “huge minority,” so we do not pose a financial dilemma to them.

But here is a contrast for consideration. This Friday, July 22 I am going with my wife and two sons to see the Blue Jays in Toronto. Not only are there accessible seating arrangements, but I can also bring with me as many “in my party,” as accompany me to the game. In Toronto, my wife and two sons get to sit in the same location with me. On top of that, if I reserve within the three-week timeframe, I am allowed a reserved accessible parking spot, close to elevators at the regular parking cost. At least the Toronto Blue Jays consider me and my family of equal value when it comes to attending their facility. Perhaps Bluesfest can take a lesson from this.

Ron Grossman, Ottawa

A dilemma over disabilities 

For someone to feel humiliated or ashamed after self-identifying their disability is something that no person who lives with any kind of impairment should have to go through.

It does pose an important question: When is self-identification not enough?  As someone who has been legally blind since birth, I find more and more as a society we ask people to self-identify their disability to ensure that proper accommodations can be made so they may enjoy experiences such as a music festival. But as a society, we also put controls in place to ensure that people are not taking advantage of the system of accommodation. This is not to say that Ms. Gibson was in any way trying to take advantage of Accessibility protocol at Bluesfest. 

We have to at least consider the people who would choose the convenience of falsely self-identifying as disabled to avoid having to walk a few hundred metres or to bypass long lineups at the main entrances. Bluesfest has an obligation to ensure the security staff at those specialty gates have a clear mandate to only allow persons with a documented disability access to those entrances. That said, a festival that makes accessibility a priority should clearly state on their website what materials are needed to access accommodations.  

Dave Brown, Ottawa

A trial date has been set next year for the man accused of killing a federal tax court judge, the judge’s wife, and a neighbour.  

Ian Bush is expected to stand trial for three months beginning on April 3, 2017 on three counts of first-degree murder in relation to the killings of retired federal tax court judge Alban Garon, 77, his wife Raymonde Garon, 77, and neighbour Marie-Claire Beniskos, 78, in late June 2007.

He will then stand trial again starting on Oct. 23 for six weeks on allegations he invaded the Sandy Hill apartment of Ernest Côté — a decorated 101-year-old Second World War war veteran — in December 2014 before robbing and attempting to kill Côté by putting a bag over his head. Côté has since died.

Evidence collected from the Côté crime scene later led police to lay charges against Bush in the unsolved homicides of the Garons and Beniskos.

Bush remains in jail awaiting trial.

aseymour@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/andrew_seymour

The 17-year-old Renfrew boy accused of killing his father on the weekend was arrested hours later in Montreal.

The boy was arrested hours after the body of his 60-year-old father was found at a residence in Horton Township late Saturday night.

The boy, whose identity is shielded by law, has been charged with second-degree murder and is scheduled to appear in Pembroke youth court Friday morning.

OPP detectives are still investigating the homicide and say no other suspects are at large.

The police are asking for the public’s help in the investigation and ask anyone with information about the case to contact the Renfrew OPP crime unit.

gdimmock@postmedia.com

@crimegarden

Under the bridge on Highway 416, where it crosses the Jock River in Barrhaven, graffiti artist Drone and his girlfriend worked under cover of darkness for 10 nights to pay tribute to 19-year-old Michael Swan, who was executed five years ago in his bedroom by Toronto hoods over a bag of weed.

He was shot in the back at point-blank range in his bedroom in the early hours of Feb. 22, 2010, as he knelt down at gunpoint next to his girlfriend after watching the Canada versus the U.S. hockey game at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The bullet pierced a lung and his heart. He died in less than a minute.

The graffiti artist usually pays tribute to Swan, who was just 19, on the anniversary of his killing. This year, the extreme cold got in the way. It took him 10 nights, and he had lots of help from his girlfriend.

The Scottish-themed piece says “Mike Swan 1990-2010” and pays respect to his family crest, the one that reads Constant and Faithful. Last year Drone paid tribute to Swan with a piece that highlighted the words Constant and Faithful. When graffiti writers in Montreal heard that it was later tagged over by others, they drove to Barrhaven and restored it out of respect for the slain Barrhaven teen.

“It shows that people still remember him and that even at a young age of 19, he has a lasting legacy in Barrhaven,” brother Alex Swan said Wednesday.

19-year-old man Michael Swan died in less than a minute after a bullet pierced his heart.

Swan’s family has been broken since the 2010 killing. His mom’s favourite holiday was Christmas, but the family stopped celebrating it — they don’t even put up a tree. They skip birthdays, too.

Sadly, his parents blame themselves, and to this day feel guilty for enjoying anything.

At the sentencing hearing for one of the convicted, Dale Swan, a private man, said: “I take exception that I have to do this in open court and before one of the very individuals responsible for my son’s death. This in itself I consider a form of victimization, but I realize this will be my only opportunity to try to put a human face on what has been, up to now a very cold, clinical, detached legal process.”

He said every special occasion reminds them only of their dead son. Just this past Christmas Eve, he sensed his longtime wife was having a particularly hard time. When he asked her what was wrong, Rea Swan broke down in tears and told him: “I hate my life … I wish I could go to sleep and never wake up.”

Kyle Mullen and Dylon Barnett, both 23, were convicted of second-degree murder in separate trials and sentenced in early February to life in prison. With time already served, Mullen will not be eligible for parole until at least 2025; Barnett could apply for parole as early as 2022. Triggerman Kristopher McLellan was convicted of first-degree murder in late 2013 and is serving a life sentence, and a fourth, Sam Tsega of Ottawa alleged to have provided information about where to find Swan, is awaiting trial.

Dale Swan still considers himself a failure as a father.

“Ultimately, it was my job to protect my child, to identify the dangers and do whatever was required to deal with them. I thought I was doing this, but it proved not to be enough. I must live with this guilt for the rest of my life.”

Rea Swan — they met at a bank where she was a teller and he a customer — told court that life will never be the same.

“Just enjoying a beautiful sunny day, a good meal or even a laugh at a good joke brings with it a feeling of guilt, she said. “How can I enjoy these things? My son is dead … I have been robbed of my son and the joys of life … There remains a large hole in my heart that will never go away. ”

The memorial graffiti that goes up every year somewhere in Barrhaven gives them a small dose of comfort.

After all, the last five years of trials has been exhausting.

They describe their son as a natural athlete who could make you laugh. And, they said, he never held a grudge. They’ll also rightly tell you that his future was stolen.

Swan sold only marijuana, and like many suburban Ottawa teens, loved to smoke it while watching hockey in his bedroom. He spent the last night of his life next to his girlfriend of 4½ years, watching the big game.

Then, the next moment, they were ordered onto their knees at gunpoint by three masked men — all from Toronto.

“I relive every Sunday night, minute by minute, knowing the times and events that led to my son’s execution,” Rea Swan told court at the sentencing hearing.

“I have nightmares of the terror Michael experienced the night he was executed. My heart aches of knowing that my son lay on the floor in his room dying alone with no one to help. The image is forever imprinted in my brain and can never be removed.

“Our family is forever broken; a piece of my heart is gone.”

gdimmock@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/crimegarden

A Gatineau artist with a toddler of her own has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in a gruesome double homicide committed in a townhouse where a three-year-old girl was found unharmed.

The bodies of Amanda Trottier and Travis Votour, both 23, were discovered on the main floor of the Eardley Terrace home the couple shared in Aylmer the morning of Jan. 6, 2014. Trottier’s daughter was upstairs.

Amanda Trottier and Travis Votour

Gatineau police initially investigated the homicides, but members of the provincial Sûreté du Québec force took over the case when police said there could be links to organized crime — a revelation that came a little more than a week into the police investigation, after the victims’ families began speculating that drugs had motivated the killings.

Sonia Vilon, 39, was arrested by Sûreté du Québec on Monday morning. She appeared in Gatineau court Tuesday morning.

Moments after the announcement by Quebec’s provincial police force, Trottier’s mother took to Facebook to express her relief at news of an arrest.

“Justice just crying tears of joy,” Victoria Lebrasseur wrote online, adding later: “My prayers are being answered.”

Lebrasseur said she didn’t know the woman accused of killing her daughter but wrote that finally “the truth will come out.”

The 16-month police investigation produced “voluminous” evidence, Crown prosecutor Sylvain Petitclerc said Tuesday at the Gatineau courthouse.

Police have not confirmed how Trottier and Votour were killed but neighbours reported hearing what sounded like gunshots thundering from the townhouse the young couple shared.

In December, police set up a command post near the scene of the homicide after receiving what they said was new information. Police did not detail what that tip was but said they hoped others would come forward with information that could help identify the killer.

According to an artist biography posted on a free online art gallery called Art-3000, Vilon drew and painted from the time she was a child, preferring to paint abstract art with oils and acrylics.

“I love to let my creativity run wild and let go my imagination to what brings me joy when I paint,” she wrote.

In 1999, Vilon attended the Ottawa School of Art. She continued to paint until 2005, she wrote, when she became partially paralyzed due to illness. Eventually, she resumed painting part-time.

“I thank life every day for being here,” she wrote. “I dedicate part of my life to what I love to do and that is painting from the heart.”

The homicide victims and the accused killer, charged with what police say were premeditated slayings, were known to police.

Vilon was charged with several firearms offences in Ottawa in April 2011, but those charges were withdrawn that July. She was also charged in 2011 with drug possession in Gatineau but was later acquitted. She was once again charged with drug possession in July 2014 and appeared in court to face that set of charges in October of last year, all the while Quebec provincial police continued to investigate the killings for which she is now charged.

Votour had a minor criminal record and, at the time of his death, was facing drug possession and assault charges for allegedly assaulting a police officer. The charges were laid in the summer of 2013.

In 2011, he was sentenced to five days in jail after pleading guilty to a set of charges including assault, threatening death or bodily harm, breach of recognizance and damaging property.

Two Sûreté du Québec detectives arrived at a home listed to “S Vilon” on Lacasse Street in Gatineau on Tuesday afternoon. Neighbours said that Vilon’s parents rent the home and that she occasionally visits them there.

An investigator who said he could not speak to media, knocked on the door then identified himself as a provincial police officer to a woman inside the house. The officer left the home minutes later.

A man who arrived at the home a short time later, after Vilon had appeared in court, declined to speak to the Citizen.

Neighbours said they saw a police presence at Vilon’s parents’ home Monday, both a police cruiser and a pair of detectives.

Vilon, however, was arrested at her Gatineau home Monday morning.

Vilon’s neighbour at that Rue du Crepuscule apartment said the woman was usually home with her young son so she assumed the woman was on maternity leave. Vilon lived at the home with a boyfriend, who hasn’t been seen in several weeks.

Police say the investigation is not yet closed and that additional arrests could still be made.

Vilon remains in custody. She is next scheduled to appear in court May 22.

With files from Meghan Hurley and Norman Provencher

syogaretnam@ottawacitizen.com

aseymour@ottawacitizen.com

Mark Haslett had had enough of his roommate’s whistling.

And when Rolland “Rolly” Laflamme wouldn’t stop, he was knifed in the stomach and left bleeding to death on the top floor of a Carling Avenue rooming house on the night of Feb. 11, 2013.

In a sensational twist on Wednesday, prosecutors used a 3 1/2-hour audio recording the accused made of the events in question at his second-degree murder trial. Jurors listening intently to the recording heard Haslett, 27, politely asking his roommate to stop it with that damned whistling.

“Rolly, um, can you please with the whistling. I’m trying to study. I’d appreciate if you didn’t whistle so loud in the common area,” Haslett is heard saying on the tape.

“Anything else?” Laflamme, 54, asks.

“No, that’s it,” Haslett says.

Then Laflamme says, “You’re never out here anyway. Keep it to yourself. Whatever. We’re never in the same room anyway. And you’re going to tell me what? Have a nice day.”

Then jurors heard what sounds like knocking on a door, three separate times.

And then they heard Laflamme whistling again, then, seconds later, the sound of Laflamme moaning and swearing.

The jury also heard other events captured on the recording — notably when the accused later went to the liquor store and helped himself to a bottle of red wine and started downing it in the aisle.

“I’ll have to call the cops if you don’t put that down. You can’t drink that here,” an LCBO employee tells the accused.

The accused’s own recorder — stuffed in his pocket — also captures comments from another customer at the Carling Avenue liquor store, who says, “You’re lucky I don’t own this bar because I’d rip it out of your hands!”

The customer then tells Haslett to put the bottle down and the screw-top cap back on.

Haslett then leaves the liquor store and goes back home where he meets Ottawa police still at the crime scene. Captured on the recording is an arresting officer saying, “Don’t move, OK. You got anything on you that’s going to hurt me? A knife?”

Haslett replies, “No”, and an officer cuffs him and says, “Not too tight there, bud?”

An officer is then heard asking Haslett if he had made a recording. Matter-of-factly, Haslett tells an officer not only how to work the recorder but tells him its USB device can be found in his bedroom.

“I’ll even show you where it is.”

An Ottawa police officer, knowing he was being audio-recorded, asks the accused killer if he’s got permission to go into his bedroom and search for the USB.

Haslett tells the officer, “Sure, yeah,” then offers up his bedroom keys.

The jury has also heard a chilling, 10-minute 911 call, with Laflamme bleeding out and begging again and again for an ambulance.

“I’m bleeding to death. I’ve just been stabbed,” Laflamme tells the 911 operator. “Get somebody over here. I’m f — ing bleeding like you wouldn’t believe.”

Police seized a blood-stained combat knife and a rambling diary from the accused killer’s bedroom.

The trial before Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland is scheduled for two weeks. Haslett is represented by Samir Adam and Sean May.

The trial resumes Thursday.

gdimmock@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/crimegarden

Howard Richmond says he was playing “the bad man” in a rape-fantasy tryst when he stabbed his wife to death in the bushes just after midnight on July 25, 2013.

Describing to a jury how he was dressed in black and armed with a screwdriver and knife, Richmond said he hid in the bushes at the edge of a darkened parking lot, sprang out on cue as Melissa walked by and “slipped into character.”

The soldier pulled her into the bushes at knifepoint and then heard a loud noise that triggered a flashback of horror from his Croatia mission in 1992, he testified at his first-degree murder trial on Friday.

“I saw the little girl and I could see myself stabbing Melissa. I don’t know why I was doing it. I felt like I was fighting for my life,” Richmond said.

In testimony earlier this week, Richmond, now 52, said he and his wife, 28, would have sex in public places and engage in bondage and rape-scenario role-playing until he lost interest in sex when his PTSD symptoms accelerated.

He has admitted killing Melissa, but his defence team has urged the jury to find him not criminally responsible because he was in the throes of chronic PTSD and could not form the intent to kill, let alone know it was wrong.

It took months for him to remember that night, and he has only been able to piece together parts of what happened through recovered memory, he told the court.

He said that deep down, he didn’t remember killing his wife, but in the face of compelling police evidence, he must have done it.

Under examination by defence lawyer Jason Gilbert, Richmond said he’s angry for not having the self-control to stop himself.

Richmond told the jury that the drive home after the killing was “fuzzy.” He remembers crying in the shower but doesn’t recall hiding his bloody clothes and the screwdriver and knife in the basement.

He said he went to bed and the next morning texted his wife to thank her for letting him sleep in. Then he wondered where she was and later reported her missing.

Her body was found days later on the edge of a ravine near the shopping centre parking lot, not far from her car.

In several police interviews, Richmond maintained his innocence and presented himself as a grieving husband bent on exacting revenge on whoever killed his wife.

Richmond was arrested on Aug. 2, 2013, and his time in jail awaiting trial has been troubling. Yelling and screaming by other inmates and the sound of slamming doors regularly trigger flashbacks from his Croatia mission, he said.

When a Muslim prisoner was placed in his cell, he slept during the day because he feared he would be attacked in his sleep at night, he said. He also worried that he would lose control and kill any inmate who challenged him to fight.

gdimmock@ottawacitizen.com

www.twitter.com/crimegarden

Everything about Adrian Daou’s murder confession is so unreliable that it’s like trying to shove a square peg into a round hole, his defence lawyer told the jury at his first-degree murder trial Friday.

In closing arguments, Annik Wills reminded the jury that Daou, 24, was desperate to get out of segregation at the Innes Road jail, suicidal and under a psychiatrist’s care when he gave a bizarre confession to police in February 2013 that he was the man with the axe who killed Jennifer Stewart in a Vanier parking lot in August 2010.

He told detectives that he wanted out of jail, and figured that if he confessed to a murder, he’d get transferred to a federal prison where he’d have more space to do his time, the court heard. The Vanier rapper told police that he hatched the murder plot for notorious hip-hop fame, and did so days after he told a doctor that his finger was possessed and that he had to bite it off to rid himself of demons, court heard.

Wills told the jury that the Crown highlighted the fact that detectives had kept hold-back details only the killer would know, but the reality, she said, was that all the facts Daou gave police were readily available in newspaper stories. The court has heard that he was reading newspaper stories about the slaying online when he told an ex-girlfriend that he was the killer.

In his confession to police, Daou got descriptions of some of the axe wounds wrong, and said he first struck her with an axe in the chest when, in fact, Stewart, 36, did not suffer any chest wounds. His lawyer also noted that Daou even got the weapon wrong, first telling police that he used a military knife when Stewart had actually been killed by an axe, according to a pathologist.

Wills reminded the jury that the axe the prosecutors held up for the jury wasn’t actually the murder weapon, which has still not been recovered.

“That axe is not the murder weapon. That’s a prop,” Wills told court.

The police, unable to find the murder weapon, bought the axe at Canadian Tire to show the jury what it looked like.

“Whatever happened to that axe?” she asked.

Though the murder weapon would have been a key piece of evidence, she reminded the jury that the police never bothered to track down the man Daou said dumped it. Beyond leaving a single voice mail, the Ottawa police took no other steps to interview the key witness.

“They made a phone call and they left a voice mail. That’s it,” Wills said.

The police have no murder weapon, no witnesses and no DNA in the case. In fact, Wills reminded the jury on Friday that another man’s DNA was found on her body.

Daou, who has given a false murder confession in the past, was fed Colonnade Pizza at Ottawa police headquarters after serving 22 days in an isolation cell at the Innes Road jail, where he had nothing except a bunk and a suicide jacket — not even a Bible, court heard.

The lawyer highlighted the fact that police don’t have “one single shred” of physical evidence, and that Daou’s DNA did not match the genetic footprint found on Stewart’s body.

Wills also reminded the jury that Daou was delusional when he gave the ever-changing confession to police, saying he was hearing messages from the radio instructing him to kill.

If the jury concludes that Daou killed Stewart, Wills urged the jury to find him not criminally responsible because he is a schizophrenic and wouldn’t be able to form the intent to kill, let alone know it’s wrong.

Daou has pleaded not guilty and the trial continues Monday.

gdimmock@ottawacitizen.com

www.twitter.com/crimegarden

An Ontario judge has ruled there will be no opportunity for early parole for convicted murderer Cherrylle Dell, who is currently serving a life sentence for killing her estranged husband more than two decades ago by giving him white wine laced with antifreeze.

Dell, who is now in her 60s, had filed a “faint hope” application more than two years ago in a bid for a reduction to the amount of her sentence she must serve before being eligible for parole.

Convicted of first-degree murder in the 1995 slaying of her husband, Scott Dell, in Killaloe, northwest of Ottawa, Dell is not eligible to file for parole until 2022. She was also charged in the murder of her lesbian lover, Nancy Fillmore, but pleaded guilty to the much lesser charge of counselling Fillmore’s killer, Brent Crawford, to intimidate her.

The first step in the faint hope application process is to convince a judge that there is a “substantial likelihood” a jury would recommend early parole. Dell failed to meet that threshold, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger ruled on Monday.

In his written decision, Maranger found that Dell has “lied pathologically about her life story.” Her “persistent misrepresentations” and “inability to tell the truth” while incarcerated for the murder make it unlikely a jury would recommend to the National Parole Board that it should consider granting her an early release, in the judge’s opinion.

Maranger found “glaring and persistent” examples of Dell’s lies that included claims she was of aboriginal heritage, that she has a university education, that she has no history of substance abuse and that her husband had sexually assaulted their children. She also made misrepresentations about her role and responsibility in the intimidation of Fillmore, who had told police that Dell was the one who killed her husband before being herself killed by the 16-year-old Crawford.

As recently as 2012, Dell continued to use the untrue sexual assault allegations as a means of justifying the murder, Maranger found. Maranger said Dell’s campaign to discredit her husband with false allegations in the years before his death to gain advantage in the family court process was one that was “relentless, ruthless and frankly unprecedented” in his experience as a judge.

Scott Dell was killed after drinking a lethal cocktail of white wine laced with antifreeze in 1995. His estranged wife, Cherrylle Dell, was convicted of first-degree murder.

Maranger said it was only recently that Dell participated earnestly in treatment and showed any sort of genuine remorse for the harm she had caused. Prison records, including certificates of achievement, program performance reports and community assessments showed that Dell had made some progress and attempts at rehabilitation, Maranger found, although he added that her level of remorse could best be characterized as “weak to moderate.” But Dell’s “long-standing inability to tell the truth about who she is” made it difficult to gauge any positive feedback from Corrections Canada, the judge found.

In his decision, Maranger said he considered the circumstances of the offence, which involved Dell resorting to murder after her husband’s throat cancer went into remission and it appeared he wouldn’t die as a result of the disease. Dell’s motive was financial and to gain custody of the children, the court found.

Related

• Archival: How sex, lies and antifreeze convicted the `Angel' of death, Cherrylle Dell

“The buildup to the commission of this offence, the diabolical nature of the murder, and the cold-blooded attitude that seems to be the hallmark of the applicant would not bode well for her chances of convincing a jury that she should be allowed to attempt earlier parole than 25 years,” wrote Maranger.

“After considering the evidence regarding the character of the applicant, her overall conduct while incarcerated, and the offence she committed, I asked myself the question: On the balance of probabilities is there evidence upon which a reasonable jury, acting judiciously, would be substantially likely to award a reduction in the applicant’s parole ineligibility? The answer in my view is very clearly no.”

The faint hope provisions of the Criminal Code have since been abolished, although Dell was still eligible because her conviction predated changes to the law.

A friend of Scott Dell believes the judge made the right decision.

“I hope she never gets out,” said Elsa Steenberg, who says she fears the day when Cherrylle Dell will be able to apply for parole.

Steenberg said members of the community still dedicate a song to Scott Dell’s memory near his birthday every March during blues night at the Wilno Tavern.

aseymour@postmedia.com

twitter.com/andrew_seymour

Navid Niran died because he wanted a cigarette, the Crown told an Ottawa jury on Tuesday. 

On Jan. 21, 2012, the 24-year-old father of a newborn son was celebrating a friend’s birthday at a Dalhousie Street nightclub. Niran stepped outside on the rooftop patio and tried to get a smoke from a stranger who was busy on his phone and was clearly angered by Niran’s repeated requests. 

So annoyed, the Crown said, in opening remarks for the first-degree murder trial of Ahmed Hafizi, 22, that the man waited outside in a black sedan for Niran to emerge from the bar. Shortly before 2:30 a.m., Niran left the club and the accused struck, the Crown alleges.

Niran was stabbed four times, twice in the stomach, and twice in the heart with a knife with a nine-centimetre blade, court heard.

“He was waiting to kill,” Crown attorney Julien Lalande told the jury, adding, “This all started over a cigarette.”

The prosecutor told the jury that Hafizi was running away before Niran hit the sidewalk. 

A police officer was flagged down and right after paramedics got Niran inside an ambulance, his heart stopped. Surgeons later would try to revive him by pumping his heart manually, but failed. 

The jury heard that Niran didn’t have a chance to defend himself in the 11-second attack, seemingly confirmed by an autopsy that concluded he had no defensive wounds.

The prosecutor also told the jury ‘This case is not a whodunnit,” noting that the accused has admitted he was in an “altercation” with Niran on the night in question.

The jury was also shown video footage from inside the club on Jan. 22 which shows Niran in the club heading toward the patio.

The Crown said that Niran’s blood was on the knife, and the accused’s DNA was on the handle of the weapon. 

Earlier in the day, Hafizi, represented by Oliver Abergel and Howard Krongold, formally pleaded not guilty.

The trial continues before Ontario Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips.

gdimmock@postmedia.com