Rick Dean
Registered
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/N.../24/511936.html
Thu, June 24, 2004
It's murder
MANSLAUGHTER PLEA REJECTED BY JURY IN PARKDALE SEX SLAYING
By SAM PAZZANO, COURTS BUREAU
A DRIFTER who strangled his casual sex partner called it a fatal reaction to rough sex. But a jury labelled it murder Tuesday.
Peter Dale MacDonald testified he choked Parkdale retiree James Campbell to death in his apartment after Campbell squeezed his testicles.
MacDonald was performing oral sex on Campbell when the 63-year-old former Canada Packer employe
engaged in unexpectedly rough sex. That foreplay enraged MacDonald. His lawyer, John Rosen, admitted his client's violent act was manslaughter, but not murder, and also said he was too drunk at the tim
e to form the intent to kill.
However, the jury didn't believe him and convicte
d MacDonald, 46, of second-degree murder late Tuesday. Justice Gloria Epstein will sentence him on Tuesday next week.
Prosecutor Paul McDermott said that MacDonald's version "was ridiculous and unbelievable.
"It just couldn't have happened as he described," McDermott said in his closing argument.
The prosecution alleged that MacDonald robbed his victim after the slaying on April 28-29, 2000 at Campbell's Tyndall Ave. home.
MacDonald, who testified he'd just been released from a detox centre that day, met Campbell at Trinity Bellwoods park, walked to the victim's home, drank and had sex.
The jury never heard that MacDonald spent 15 years in pris
ons on a lengthy, violence-laden criminal record. His robbery convictions were called "thefts," although the jury heard he was sentenced to 11 years.
MacDonald was originally charged w
ith first-degree murder, but that charge was quashed by the Court of Appeal. It agreed with MacDonald's lawyer that there was no evidence that a sexua
l assault occurred between the accused and victim.
DNA material belonging to the accused was found under the fingernails of the homicide victim, on beer bottles and a glass tumbler.
Thu, June 24, 2004
It's murder
MANSLAUGHTER PLEA REJECTED BY JURY IN PARKDALE SEX SLAYING
By SAM PAZZANO, COURTS BUREAU
A DRIFTER who strangled his casual sex partner called it a fatal reaction to rough sex. But a jury labelled it murder Tuesday.
Peter Dale MacDonald testified he choked Parkdale retiree James Campbell to death in his apartment after Campbell squeezed his testicles.
MacDonald was performing oral sex on Campbell when the 63-year-old former Canada Packer employe
engaged in unexpectedly rough sex. That foreplay enraged MacDonald. His lawyer, John Rosen, admitted his client's violent act was manslaughter, but not murder, and also said he was too drunk at the tim
e to form the intent to kill.
However, the jury didn't believe him and convicte
d MacDonald, 46, of second-degree murder late Tuesday. Justice Gloria Epstein will sentence him on Tuesday next week.
Prosecutor Paul McDermott said that MacDonald's version "was ridiculous and unbelievable.
"It just couldn't have happened as he described," McDermott said in his closing argument.
The prosecution alleged that MacDonald robbed his victim after the slaying on April 28-29, 2000 at Campbell's Tyndall Ave. home.
MacDonald, who testified he'd just been released from a detox centre that day, met Campbell at Trinity Bellwoods park, walked to the victim's home, drank and had sex.
The jury never heard that MacDonald spent 15 years in pris
ons on a lengthy, violence-laden criminal record. His robbery convictions were called "thefts," although the jury heard he was sentenced to 11 years.
MacDonald was originally charged w
ith first-degree murder, but that charge was quashed by the Court of Appeal. It agreed with MacDonald's lawyer that there was no evidence that a sexua
l assault occurred between the accused and victim.
DNA material belonging to the accused was found under the fingernails of the homicide victim, on beer bottles and a glass tumbler.
imp: