Warning: Readers might discover some particulars on this article disturbing or upsetting.
Closing submissions are underway on Thursday within the case of a Barrie man on trial for the dying of a younger mom 30 years in the past.
Bruce Ellis, aka Robert MacQueen, is accused of fatally stabbing Katherine Janeiro in her Dunlop Road West house on Oct. 10, 1994.
He is charged with second-degree homicide.
Crown legal professional Mary-Anne Alexander advised the court docket Ellis had been in an extra-marital affair with Janeiro that had ended badly.
Alexander alleged he bought offended with Janeiro for telling his spouse she was pregnant and spreading rumours he had contracted AIDS from an unique dancer.
Final month, his ex-wife took the stand, telling the court docket they lived throughout the road from Janeiro’s house and that Ellis usually went to the younger woman’s place when the couple argued.
The Crown claimed Ellis took Janeiro’s life in her bathtub whereas she was bare and weak and moved her physique to the bed room, the place she was later discovered.
A neighbour who usually went to Janeiro’s unit to borrow her telephone discovered the 20-year-old’s lifeless physique face down on her bed room flooring and referred to as the police.
In the course of the trial, the court docket heard Janeiro had been shopping for and promoting medicine and that a number of individuals had been in her house within the hours main as much as her physique being discovered.
A witness took the stand to inform the courtroom that two males, Woody Theakston and Paul Daigle, had been in Janeiro’s kitchen rummaging via her cabinets earlier than they fled the house.
The Crown stated Theakston was in Janeiro’s house on the lookout for cough syrup for a pal and had a key to let himself in.
Daigle admitted to the court docket that when he realized Janeiro was lifeless, he and Theakston wiped their fingerprints from contained in the unit. He additionally stated he did not name the police however later went to offer a press release.
The defence pointed to Daigle, suggesting he moved Janeiro’s physique from the toilet to the bed room. He denied any involvement.
Theakston has since handed away.
Alexander went on to emphasize Theakston had an alibi for when Janeiro was fatally stabbed.
In the course of the trial, the court docket additionally heard testimony from a lady who recounted seeing a person working towards Milligan’s Pond the night of the homicide with a telephone in his palms, the twine dangling.
The court docket had beforehand discovered officers found Janeiro’s telephone had been ripped out of the wall and was lacking.
The prosecution advised the courtroom Ellis took the telephone as a result of he had paid for it, saying there was no manner he was leaving it behind, detailing for the jury how upset Ellis allegedly was over the telephone invoice.
The telephone was later present in a creek.
“This was not about medicine. This was not about money. This was private,” the Crown argued on Thursday, including, “This was a criminal offense of ardour.”
Defence lawyer Mary Cremer countered the prosecution’s case, telling the jury Ellis had no cause to kill Janeiro, calling the Crown’s motive for homicide weak and nonsensical.
“Killing somebody over a family invoice,” Cremer stated, “makes completely no sense.”
The defence as soon as once more pointed the finger at somebody apart from Ellis.
“Woody by no means as soon as confirmed any concern for Kathy’s welfare and always remained 100 per cent involved about himself,” Cremer stated, noting the alleged drug vendor was anticipated to go to Janeiro the night time of her dying.
Ellis, now 61, has maintained his innocence all through the trial.
With recordsdata from CTV’s Mike Arsalides
