Editor’s note: The following story contains graphic descriptions heard in court that may not be suitable for some readers.
The defence team for a man accused of second-degree murder resumed their final arguments Friday in front of the jury in a Barrie courtroom, marking Day 15 of the ongoing trial delving into the 1994 stabbing death of 20-year-old Katherine Janeiro in her apartment.
Janeiro, mother to a two-year-old daughter, was found dead in her Dunlop Street West home on Oct. 10, 1994, near Anne Street.
Robert MacQueen, who's now 61 and is also known as Bruce Ellis, a name which has also been used during the trial, is charged with second-degree murder in her death. None of the allegations against him have been proven in court.
Court has heard the last time Janeiro had contact with anyone was around 4 a.m. on Oct. 10, 1994. Her body was discovered by a friend around 7 p.m. that night. Her daughter had been visiting family members at the time.
Defence lawyer Mary Cremer continued her argument as to why MacQueen is not guilty of Janeiro’s murder.
Cremer painted a picture of MacQueen's innocence by reviewing the prior court testimony of the accused's ex-wife, Karen Unger, who was still married to him at the time in 1994.
Cremer said the family had a “low-key” Thanksgiving dinner on the night of the homicide with MacQueen’s brother, Peter Ellis.
Cremer highlighted testimony from Unger, who said she also didn’t recall anyone leaving the home anytime throughout that night. Unger testified she remembered MacQueen being asleep in the bed next to her, waking up in the night after a loud “bang,” with MacQueen still in bed with her.
They were “early risers” when they got up in the mornings, court heard.
With witness testimony pointing to Janeiro being on the phone with a friend until sometime between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., for MacQueen to have killed Janeiro, Cremer told the jury he would had to have “left his wife sleeping in their bed, get up and go downstairs past his brother sleeping on the couch, leave through their front door, go across the street, enter Katherine’s apartment, stab her multiple times … somehow transport her from the bathroom to the bedroom, ransack the bedroom, leave the scene, go back home across the street, go back into his house without waking anybody up, somehow clean himself up, slip back into bed next his wife and not wake her. And get all of that done before 6 a.m.”
Cremer called the Crown’s theory of events “impossible.”
Cremer then continued to further explain how she thinks the outlaw biker, William “Woody” Theakston, and Paul Daigle were responsible for Janeiro’s murder.
Cremer noted both Theakston's and Daigle’s extensive criminal records, and suggested Daigle, who testified as a witness earlier in the trial, had “no respect to tell the truth here in court.”
She highlighted his disrespectful attitude and demeanour while on the stand during her cross-examination.
Cremer reminded the jury Daigle was “flippant with his answers, and he even referred to me as ‘sweetheart.’ He lied to all of you.”
Cremer insisted the only reason for their trip to Janeiro’s apartment was “to collect money … and get pills.”
She also suggested all of the testimony by Connie Carlson, the woman who testified she saw MacQueen running across Dunlop Street after the murder with Janeiro’s missing telephone tucked under his arm, was of no use to the jury.
Cremer explained her picking MacQueen out of a dozen photos shown to her by police was “not a proper identification of someone,” adding it was just a “resemblance” of someone she saw 25 years ago, citing Carlson’s statements as she chose the photo and asking the police “do I have to be 100 per cent” sure, and saying she picked his photo because “I have a feeling.”
Cremer brushed aside the DNA evidence against MacQueen, insisting his blood was in Janeiro’s apartment because he had lived there for three or four months, and calling it “circumstantial evidence.”
As she closed out her final arguments, Cremer said to the jury “when you step back and consider the entirety of all of this evidence, the evidence just does not add up.”
Cremer insisted there was no motive for MacQueen to murder Janeiro, and added “people don’t kill each other over an unpaid phone bill. People don’t kill each other over a rumour about spreading some sort of disease. People don’t kill each other over some allegation or rumour of someone being pregnant, much less after the fact when the pregnancy was over.”
Cremer finished by telling the jury they should find her client not guilty of second-degree murder.
With the final arguments by both the Crown and defence now complete, MacQueen's fate is now in the hands of the 14 jurors.
The jury is expected to begin deliberating later in the day on Monday.
