Jury finds estranged partner guilty of first-degree murder

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Two days after he brutally murdered his ex-partner Marie Gabriel, Jean “Berno” Fenelon went again to the crime scene and despatched a textual content message to her older brother.

David Gabriel learn components of that alternate in an Ottawa courtroom late on Friday evening after a jury returned with its verdict and located Fenelon responsible of first-degree homicide following three full days of deliberations.

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“One thing occurred to Marie!” was the start of the textual content her brother acquired on March 28, 2022 as Fenelon spun a fabricated story to Gabriel’s household — then to Ottawa police.

“I maintain texting her since Saturday after I left, then right this moment I went to drop the youngsters off, I knock I knock and no reply… I went to the basement she was mendacity down there… she didn’t breathe in any respect.”

Fenelon continued mendacity as he claimed he had left Gabriel alive and nicely on the morning of March 26 when his automobile was seen arriving at her Heatherington Street townhouse at 11:42 a.m. and casually leaving 10 minutes later.

He informed detectives he stumbled upon her lifeless physique two days later in a pool of dried blood within the basement, the place police would discover Gabriel’s physique, her bloody footprints and apparent indicators of a violent wrestle.

When David Gabriel despatched the tragic information to his father, Andy Stone, who had been separated from his youngsters for years and dwelling within the U.Ok., Stone instantly responded: “That f—ing Berno did it.”

Stone and his son attended every day of the six-week trial in Ottawa and he took the witness stand to testify concerning the determined messages his daughter would ship from abroad.

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She despatched one chilling textual content to her father in November 2021 after fleeing Fenelon’s threats and verbal abuse.

“I simply needed to let simply in case one thing occurs to me or my children, simply know that I attempted,” she wrote.

“Final evening I took the youngsters and left their father’s residence as I used to be fearing for my life and theirs as he began saying issues that make somebody concern for his or her life. I’m at a secure place proper now, simply letting you or anybody know.”

Stone known as Fenelon a “bully” and a “coward” within the courtroom as he learn his personal sufferer impression assertion following the decision.

“I pray that no different father or mother has to learn a textual content message like that,” he mentioned.

Gabriel had fled the Gatineau residence she shared with Fenelon and stayed together with her two younger youngsters in an Ottawa shelter, then a resort earlier than discovering sponsored housing on the Heatherington townhouse.

Fenelon “manipulated” his manner again into her life when their daughter acquired sick, in response to the Crown’s timeline, however Gabriel quickly ended the connection and kicked him out once more.

Prosecutors offered texts Gabriel despatched to Fenelon weeks earlier than she was killed when she informed him: “I need nothing to do with you.”

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Fenelon was enraged, in response to the Crown’s principle of the case, as a result of she had lastly ended their relationship and had not too long ago began seeing one other man.

The violence that erupted inside Gabriel’s residence at 1485 Heatherington Rd., on March 26, 2022, was the “fruits of seven years of battle” as Gabriel was making an attempt to flee the “tumultuous, poisonous” relationship and to chop ties with the “controlling, aggressive, verbally abusive” Fenelon, Crown lawyer Dallas Mack informed the jury throughout his closing tackle final week.

Gabriel was on the cellphone together with her greatest buddy that morning when Fenelon confirmed up at her entrance door, then pressured his manner via the again entrance. The final phrases her buddy heard from Gabriel was her screaming on the intruder: “Get the f— out of my home!”

Fenelon cornered Gabriel within the basement, struck her at the back of the legs with a bit of wooden, chased and grabbed her and dragged her throughout the concrete ground, prosecutors mentioned.

He ended her life with a 30-pound dumbbell that he smashed into her head, doubtless as she was laying in opposition to the naked ground.

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She died virtually immediately, in response to testimony from forensic pathologist Dr. Christopher Milroy, because the killer delivered at the least two “catastrophic” deadly blows with the dumbbell that caved and shattered her cranium.

“No mere stranger did this to Marie Gabriel,” Crown prosecutor Mack informed the jury. “This was private.”

Fenelon pleaded not responsible on the outset of his trial on Oct. 7 and his lawyer, Ari Goldkind, elected to name no proof or witnesses to testify on behalf of the defence.

Goldkind raised the spectre of a mistrial earlier than the case formally closed on Wednesday. Superior Court docket Justice Ian Carter notified the court docket that the jury had despatched a query to the choose asking for the “authorized definition of animus.”

Crown prosecutors had used that time period throughout their closing tackle to explain the hostility and ill-will they mentioned Fenelon harboured in opposition to Gabriel as he waged a marketing campaign of felony harassment that culminated within the killing.

The jury posed that query a day after the prosecution made its closing case to the jury; and simply moments after Goldkind had accomplished his personal closing tackle to the jury.

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Goldkind, as he identified to the choose, had by no means talked about “animus” throughout his hours-long closing tackle.

The query, which was signed by “the jury,” had additionally arrived earlier than the choose had delivered his closing authorized directions to the jurors. The choose’s directions symbolize the necessary closing stage of a jury trial earlier than deliberations can start.

Goldkind argued the query instructed the jury had prematurely commenced their deliberations.

“We’re in uncharted territory right here,” Goldkind mentioned Wednesday, suggesting the mishap might end in a mistrial. “It’s both nothing or we’ve wasted 22 days (of trial) right here.”

The jury was quickly excused late Wednesday because the choose thought of arguments from the Crown and defence earlier than in the end deciding to proceed together with his directions to the jury.

Carter dominated that jurors have been allowed to debate the case previous to starting formal deliberations, and mentioned the query posed by jurors didn’t counsel that they had reached any advance conclusions.

The jury, comprised of 9 ladies and three males, took three days earlier than concluding that Fenelon was responsible of homicide.

Goldkind requested that every member of the jury be polled to make sure their verdict was unanimous. All 12 jurors answered confidently within the affirmative.

The primary-degree homicide conviction means Fenelon was mechanically sentenced to life in jail with no likelihood of parole for 25 years.

ahelmer@postmedia.com

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