The man accused of fatally stabbing 39-year-old cancer researcher Dr. Mark Ernsting nine times in downtown Toronto in 2015 has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
However, Calvin Michael Nimoh tried to plead guilty to manslaughter on the opening day of his jury trial. Michael Cantlon, the crown attorney, rejected that plea and told Justice David McCombs he is proceeding with the trial on the first-degree murder charges.
“However, the issue for you to determine in this case is why? Or in more legal terms, what was Calvin Nimoh’s criminal intent at the time he came into contact with Dr. Ernsting that fateful night Dec. 15, 2015.”
The seven-man, five-woman jury was told that 90 minutes before Ernsting was stabbed on McGill Street, 65-year-old Glynis Brownsey was robbed of her purse, stabbed four times, knocked to the ground and kicked near Yonge Street and Summerhill Avenue.
The crown said Brownsey, an opera director who was in town staying with a friend, was attacked by a masked person who was assisted by a second masked person. The crown alleged Brownsey’s attacker was Nimoh.
After that alleged attack, the jury was told Nimoh took the subway to College Station with his girlfriend and his suspected accomplice in the Brownsey robbery.
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It’s there at College Station the crown told the jury Nimoh had a fight with his girlfriend. The crown said video surveillance from the TTC will show that at 9:16 p.m., Nimoh exited College Park towards Carlton Street. At around 9:18 p.m., Nimoh was seen entering the courtyard where Dr. Ernsting was stabbed and killed.
“The crown is unaware of any connections between the accused and Dr. Ernsting, other than they were both in the same place at the same time,” Cantlon told the jury.
At 9:27 p.m., Toronto police received a 911 call regarding the fatal stabbing of Dr. Ernsting.
Nimoh, who was 22 years old at the time, was arrested for the robbery and stabbing of Glynis Brownsey at 10:26 p.m. after a foot chase near Yonge Street and Summerhill Avenue.
While searching him, they found the red handle of a knife. There was no blade attached to the handle. The crown alleged the knife which killed Dr. Ernsting penetrated his skull with such force, it broke the blade and it remained lodged in his head.
Robert Iseman, Dr Ernsting’s husband, was the first witness to testify. While wiping away tears, he recalled waking up around 11 p.m. to find his husband had not returned home from his evening walk.
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“I tried to call my husband several times but couldn’t get through. Then I got a text from a friend saying there has been a stabbing on the street,” Iseman testified.
Glynis Brownsey also testified that she was stunned by the mugging, but didn’t realize she has been stabbed until the paramedics examined here.
“They said, ‘These are stabbed wounds — you’ve been stabbed,’ and very quickly I was taken to the emergency room at Sunnybrook (Health Sciences Centre),” she said.
The trial is expected to last five weeks.
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