- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,262
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 0
Rachelle Denis, who claimed she blacked out when she saw former lover Tony El-Kassis walking across a Richmond Parking lot and ran him down from behind, has been found guilty of manslaughter.
An Ottawa jury delivered the verdict on the lesser charge in a packed courtroom on Thursday afternoon. Denis had pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
In a gripping final address to the jury, defence lawyer Natasha Calvinho had pleaded for jurors to rely on common sense and find Denis, long plagued by tragedy and mental illness, not criminally responsible for the 2010 killing of El-Kassis.
The lawyer said the Crown would have the jury believe that Denis, 43, was a lying, cold-blooded killer. But Calvinhoi said her client is “sick” and went into autopilot when she plowed into 60-year-old El-Kassis with her Jeep on the morning of July 2, 2010.
She told the jury to reach a “right and just” verdict so that in the years to come they can look back at the trial and see a “spirit of justice” that sends Denis to a hospital and not prison. The lawyer, a partner at Abergel Goldstein, detailed extensive medical evidence the trial heard and said there is no doubt that Denis is severely mentally ill, and was so on the morning she killed El-Kassis.
The defence team never disputed that Denis killed El-Kassis. Calvinho said it was a case of whether she knew what she was doing when she saw El-Kassis in the parking lot, and gunned it at 80 km/h in a straight line — never swerving or braking — and hit him and then a brick wall.
Tony El-Kassis was struck from behind as he walked in the parking lot of the Richmond Plaza on the morning of July 2, 2010. The 60-year-old chip truck operator died from his injuries days later. His ex-mistress, Rachelle Denis, 43, is on trial on a charge of second-degree murder. (Facebook)
El-Kassis, a married father of four daughters, had engaged in what the defence branded as an exploitive sexual affair with the accused when she was in the throes of postpartum depression in 2009, at a time when she was frail, vulnerable and desperate for affection and attention. Court heard that El-Kassis showered her with both and bragged about his sexual exploits with the accused.
But the court also heard how Denis showered El-Kassis, his wife and four daughters with attention after he ended his affair with Denis in September 2009. That attention found family on Facebook, at their family-run chip truck in Richmond, and at the front door.
Denis, 43 called his daughters so often looking to speak to their parents that it became part of their routine, sometimes phoning at 5 a.m. and again only minutes later. She’d show up at their family home and this daughters heard their father demanding loudly for her to go away.
Then she took to Facebook, and on Oct. 8, 2009, she messaged Samira El-Kassis, claiming her father was a “predator and a rapist” who stalked her for months. “I was in despair and he violated me … I’m not the same person I was before he came and took advantage of me,” Denis wrote to El-Kassis’s daughter.
Samira El-Kassis, 24, recalled that their home life was tense and marked with confusion and frustration.
“It was kind of getting a little weird. We assumed something else was going to come after all the phone calls,” she testified.
One day as she left the family home for work, she noticed that someone had posted a date-rape information sticker on their front door, she recalled.
Her older sister, Magida, 25, testified about Denis’s “obsessive” phone calls to their home and their family-run Tony’s Chip Wagon. “It just became part of our daily lives … the calls … just part of the routine,” she said.
The sisters told court that they gave their parents the day off from the chip truck to celebrate what would be their last Canada Day. The daughters covered off their shifts at the chip stand and Tony and his wife, Cecile, spent the day visiting family in Wakefield.
The court also heard about a family vacation to Mexico, designed to smooth things out after a months-long campaign of harassment that prompted Tony El-Kassis to call the police more than once. He told police that he feared things could turn violent. He also tried, unsuccessfully, to get a restraining order against Denis and had a lawyer send her a cease-and-desist letter.
But he wasn’t the only one complaining to police.
The court has also heard that Denis complained to Ottawa police that El-Kassis had sexually assaulted her. Police investigated he claim and El-Kassis was not charged with any crime. The police, at the time, sent an officer to check on her mental health.
gdimmock@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/crimegarden
查看原文...
An Ottawa jury delivered the verdict on the lesser charge in a packed courtroom on Thursday afternoon. Denis had pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
In a gripping final address to the jury, defence lawyer Natasha Calvinho had pleaded for jurors to rely on common sense and find Denis, long plagued by tragedy and mental illness, not criminally responsible for the 2010 killing of El-Kassis.
The lawyer said the Crown would have the jury believe that Denis, 43, was a lying, cold-blooded killer. But Calvinhoi said her client is “sick” and went into autopilot when she plowed into 60-year-old El-Kassis with her Jeep on the morning of July 2, 2010.
She told the jury to reach a “right and just” verdict so that in the years to come they can look back at the trial and see a “spirit of justice” that sends Denis to a hospital and not prison. The lawyer, a partner at Abergel Goldstein, detailed extensive medical evidence the trial heard and said there is no doubt that Denis is severely mentally ill, and was so on the morning she killed El-Kassis.
The defence team never disputed that Denis killed El-Kassis. Calvinho said it was a case of whether she knew what she was doing when she saw El-Kassis in the parking lot, and gunned it at 80 km/h in a straight line — never swerving or braking — and hit him and then a brick wall.
Tony El-Kassis was struck from behind as he walked in the parking lot of the Richmond Plaza on the morning of July 2, 2010. The 60-year-old chip truck operator died from his injuries days later. His ex-mistress, Rachelle Denis, 43, is on trial on a charge of second-degree murder. (Facebook)
El-Kassis, a married father of four daughters, had engaged in what the defence branded as an exploitive sexual affair with the accused when she was in the throes of postpartum depression in 2009, at a time when she was frail, vulnerable and desperate for affection and attention. Court heard that El-Kassis showered her with both and bragged about his sexual exploits with the accused.
But the court also heard how Denis showered El-Kassis, his wife and four daughters with attention after he ended his affair with Denis in September 2009. That attention found family on Facebook, at their family-run chip truck in Richmond, and at the front door.
Denis, 43 called his daughters so often looking to speak to their parents that it became part of their routine, sometimes phoning at 5 a.m. and again only minutes later. She’d show up at their family home and this daughters heard their father demanding loudly for her to go away.
Then she took to Facebook, and on Oct. 8, 2009, she messaged Samira El-Kassis, claiming her father was a “predator and a rapist” who stalked her for months. “I was in despair and he violated me … I’m not the same person I was before he came and took advantage of me,” Denis wrote to El-Kassis’s daughter.
Samira El-Kassis, 24, recalled that their home life was tense and marked with confusion and frustration.
“It was kind of getting a little weird. We assumed something else was going to come after all the phone calls,” she testified.
One day as she left the family home for work, she noticed that someone had posted a date-rape information sticker on their front door, she recalled.
Her older sister, Magida, 25, testified about Denis’s “obsessive” phone calls to their home and their family-run Tony’s Chip Wagon. “It just became part of our daily lives … the calls … just part of the routine,” she said.
The sisters told court that they gave their parents the day off from the chip truck to celebrate what would be their last Canada Day. The daughters covered off their shifts at the chip stand and Tony and his wife, Cecile, spent the day visiting family in Wakefield.
The court also heard about a family vacation to Mexico, designed to smooth things out after a months-long campaign of harassment that prompted Tony El-Kassis to call the police more than once. He told police that he feared things could turn violent. He also tried, unsuccessfully, to get a restraining order against Denis and had a lawyer send her a cease-and-desist letter.
But he wasn’t the only one complaining to police.
The court has also heard that Denis complained to Ottawa police that El-Kassis had sexually assaulted her. Police investigated he claim and El-Kassis was not charged with any crime. The police, at the time, sent an officer to check on her mental health.
gdimmock@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/crimegarden
查看原文...
