Editor’s note: The following story contains graphic descriptions heard in court that may not be suitable for some readers.
The video of a police statement given by an alleged president of a notorious outlaw biker gang, along with testimony by the ex-wife and half-brother of an accused killer in the 1994 murder of a young woman in her apartment, played out in a Barrie courtroom yesterday.
Katherine Janeiro was found stabbed to death on Oct. 10, 1994 in her Dunlop Street West home.
Robert MacQueen, who is now 61 and is also known as Bruce Ellis, is on trial for second-degree murder in her death. None of the allegations against him have been proven in court.
The trial entered its eighth day on Wednesday as it delves into a three-decade-old homicide that left the young mother dead from multiple stab wounds.
Karen Unger, MacQueen's ex-wife who was known as Karen Ellis at the time of the homicide, continued to be questioned by defence lawyer Mary Cremer on Wednesday, after beginning her testimony the previous day.
Unger described the night of the murder, saying both her and MacQueen went to bed around 11 p.m. MacQueen’s younger brother, Peter Ellis, was staying with them at the time and slept on a couch in the apartment, which was located on the other side of Dunlop Street from the crime scene.
Unger testified that all three were awoken by a loud bang sometime during the night. She said she didn’t pay much attention to it, and testified she wasn’t certain if MacQueen had gotten up to investigate what the noise was. They went back to sleep after that, she said.
Unger said MacQueen had a key to Janeiro’s apartment, as he sometimes stayed at her place when their marriage was on the rocks.
Shortly before the homicide, MacQueen had told Unger he was going to return the key to Janeiro, court heard.
Assistant Crown attorney Mike Flosman asked Unger if she saw him return the key to her. She answered no.
“Was he always honest with you when it came to Katherine Janeiro?” Flosman asked.
“No,” Unger answered.
The next witness to take the stand Wednesday was 63-year-old John Binns, who was a friend of MacQueen’s. He said he usually saw MacQueen on a daily basis.
Binns had also known Janeiro for a few years as an acquaintance. He was the man who was sitting on her couch the night of her murder, court heard. Previous witnesses had testified to seeing Binns on the couch, not speaking to anyone, when they visited her apartment in the hours leading up to her death.
He described Janeiro as wearing a housecoat while he was there that night.
Binns testified Janeiro was frustrated all night as she had said she lost drugs while at a bar, known as Tom Dooleys, earlier in the evening, having dropped a “bunch of pills in the toilet and they were gone.”
Earlier in the trial, the Crown had described Janeiro as someone who “sold drugs for a friend.”
Binns said Janeiro was out that amount of money for the drugs that were lost, and now owed Woody, the nickname of a man named William Theakston. She was “upset and stressed," Binns testified.
After two female visitors bought cocaine from Janeiro and left, Binns testified he saw Janeiro on the phone, but was not sure who it was she was speaking to, court heard. Shortly after the call, she insisted he “had to go as people are coming over.”
Binns said he smoked a joint and stayed another 20 minutes before he left.
“She was anxious to get me out,” he said.
When he was in his vehicle in the building's parking lot, and before he started it, a blue and green pickup truck arrived, dropping a man off at the front door.
Binns said he slouched down in his seat to hide himself, as he was under the assumption it was Theakston, but he couldn’t see his face very well.
“If it was Woody, I didn’t want him seeing me, because of what was going on with her,” said Binns, knowing Theakston was the president of an outlaw motorcycle club and involved in the drug trade.
Binns said he expected Theakston to be the one arriving to see Janeiro, who sold drugs for him.
“I didn’t want to be seen as in his business in any way,” he testified.
Next on the witness stand Wednesday was Peter Ellis, 52, MacQueen’s half-brother, who is 10 years younger. He had been living at MacQueen’s home at the time for about four or five months, sleeping on his couch, as they worked together for a tree-removal business.
Due to the nature of the business, he testified they both frequently cut or injured their hands, as Cremer had suggested was the case.
Ellis described his brother as “not a demonstrator of affection,” but he looked up to him as more of a “father figure” than a brother.
The focus of the court proceedings then switched to video evidence showing Theakston being questioned by detectives. Theakston has since died, but no date was provided to the court.
Theakston, along with another man named Paul Daigle, who was with him at Janeiro’s apartment in the hours after she was killed, had turned themselves in to police headquarters after finding her body.
The video showing the police interview, which was about an hour long, was played in its entirety for the jury.
In the video, Theakston said Janeiro left a voice message on his cellphone during the night saying, “I’ve gotta talk to you, it’s really important.”
She said she would call back, but she never did.
Theakston told police Janeiro owed him $500 for furniture she had bought, mentioning a bed. He also described looking through the kitchen cupboards when they arrived at her apartment, searching for the cough syrup — which contained codeine to get high on — that he and Daigle were supposedly there to get.
Theakston said he had a key to her apartment, as they were friends. He also noted seeing a young girl come in use the phone while they were in the kitchen. She went looking for it and then left in a hurry after going into the bedroom.
He said she didn’t tell them about the body.
Theakston said he then went to Janeiro’s bedroom, flicked on the light and saw her body on the floor. He remembered saying to himself “I’m going to jail forever” and then “I got outta there.”
“I never had such a shock in my life,” he told police.
Theakston admitted to investigators that both he and Daigle wiped down areas of the apartment they had touched in an effort to hide any evidence they had been there.
“I don’t know why I did that!” he exclaimed in the video.
Theakston repeatedly calls Janeiro “one of his best friends” and tells police a number of times “I’ll do anything I can to assist you guys.”
He also described the end of MacQueen and Janeiro’s brief relationship, saying “it wasn’t a good breakup."
“Is there anyone who would want to kill her?” asked one of the officers during the interview.
“No, everybody liked her," Theakston replied.
The trial, which is expected to last seven weeks, resumes today.
At the time of Janeiro's death, police said she had suffered multiple stab wounds. Her two-year-old daughter had been visiting family members at the time of the homicide.
Court 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.
Court previously heard from the Crown that MacQueen had been in a relationship with Janeiro while he was married and living nearby on Dunlop Street.
On Tuesday, Unger testified that Janeiro had told her she was pregnant, and the father was believed to be MacQueen or possibly another man.
During opening statements, the Crown said Janeiro had a "therapeutic abortion" on Sept. 16, 1994, less than a month before she was killed.
MacQueen was initially charged with first-degree murder in January 2021, more than 26 years after Janeiro’s body was discovered in her apartment. The charge was reduced to second-degree murder following a preliminary hearing in December 2022. He was granted bail in July 2023.
According to news reports published by the former Barrie Examiner, Janeiro’s body was found lying on the floor, covered in blood with scratches on her face. She’d been at a pair of downtown bars most of Sunday night and early Monday morning prior to her body being discovered.
Janeiro left home at age 16 and moved to Barrie. A year later, she gave birth to a girl. About 10 months prior to her death, Janeiro had moved into the Dunlop Street apartment with her toddler.
