WARNING: Details in this story are disturbing. Discretion is advised.
Three men charged in the killing of an Abbotsford couple during a home invasion in 2022 have been found guilty of first-degree murder.
Justice Brenda Brown stated on Friday that Abhijeet Singh, Gurkaran Singh and Khushveer Toor were guilty in the deaths of 77-year-old Arnold De Jong and 76-year-old Joanne De Jong.
The court earlier heard that Arnold died by asphyxiation, with his entire head and face wrapped in duct tape, while Joanne was bludgeoned and had her throat slashed.
The three men pleaded not guilty earlier this year.
The three men, all in their 20s, were arrested in December 2022, after the De Jongs’ bodies were found in their Abbotsford home that May.
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Prosecutors say the suspects had done cleaning work there before the home invasion, and that the men killed the couple before stealing cheques, credit cards and a power washer.
Brown called it a deliberate and forcible confinement and murder.
“Both De Jongs were killed to eliminate them as witnesses,” she said.
Brown added that if the plan was to confine the De Jongs and steal their property, they could have achieved that without killing the couple.
“Instead, the De Jongs were murdered, their deaths were intimate and prolonged,” she said.
“Intimate in the sense that the direct perpetrator or perpetrators were in close contact with the deceased as they were killed. Prolonged in the sense that neither of the deaths was quick.”
The court heard during the judge-alone trial that one of the accused accessed news articles about the killings, and conducted “exceptionally damning” Google searches about the punishment for murder in Canada.
Defence lawyers argued that the evidence doesn’t prove the killings were planned, telling the judge it was a “botched robbery,” and the highest available verdict in the case would be manslaughter.
Brown disagreed.
“I am satisfied that the murders of both victims were carefully planned, deliberated and executed,” she said.
“I’m satisfied each accused is guilty of first-degree murder.”
The men are set to be sentenced on May 28, starting at 10 a.m.
-with files from The Canadian Press
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