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A 41-year-old Toronto man on trial for second-degree murder admitted in court on Tuesday he dismembered the body of Melissa Cooper but says the 30-year-old died of an overdose.
Taking the stand in his own defence, Albert Ian Ohab also told the jury, his live-in girlfriend had died of a fentanyl overdose in the same apartment, just months prior to Cooper’s death.
The girlfriend’s death was deemed an accidental overdose and Ohab told the court he “didn’t want to deal with the repercussions” of Cooper’s death.
Ohab testified he ran into Cooper in the hallway of his Toronto Community Housing building at 220 Oak St. around 1:30 on the morning of April 15, 2016. He said she asked him for a crack pipe because she had crack cocaine and wanted to smoke it. Ohab invited Cooper back to his apartment where he had a pipe, acknowledging to the court that he was a habitual drug use.
Ohab told the jury he knew Cooper from around the building, a location he referred to as “a drug den.” He said the two of them had interacted before and he knew she often stayed with people who lived in the building.
Ohab testified he gave Cooper some vodka and a beer before she smoked crack cocaine in the his apartment on the 23rd floor a short time later.
Ohab said he also took a hit of crack from his own pipe. The jury saw surveillance video from 2:28 a.m. that showed Ohab on the elevator, getting off at the 15th floor.
He testified in court, he went to buy heroin from a dealer who lived on the floor. When he came back, he said Cooper was in the washroom and said she was “okay.” He said he then shot up heroin before he passed out.
Ohab testified he woke around between 8 and 9 a.m. on April 15 and found Cooper lying on the living room floor. He said he smelled vomit.
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“It didn’t look right. Discolouration in the face. I touched her and she was cold. I felt her pulse on her neck. It was cold. I freaked out,” the jury heard Ohab say.
Ohab explained to the court he was still dealing with the repercussions of his girlfriend’s death on January 20, 2016 and decided to put Cooper’s body in the stairwell of the building rather than call paramedics.
“It was the perfect storm. The bathroom was right there. My girlfriend had just died in that apartment a little over two months earlier. Another person had just died in my apartment. I can’t deal with this.” Ohab told the court.
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Ohab also testified that others in the building previously told him he should not have called EMS when his girlfriend overdosed. He told the court he was told that dumping someone who has overdosed in the stairwell was a more common way to deal with that kind of situation. According to his testimony, Ohab said he was operating under “panic and fear.”
“Cooper was dead. I was left with her remains and I felt responsible for her remains,” he said.
Ohab testified he dragged Cooper to the front door and wanted to put her in the stairwell but the next-door neighbour was coming out so he shut his door.
He said he realized he couldn’t move her to the stairwell, so he decided to put her in the bathroom.
“I put her in the tub. I started freaking out. I thought about calling for help,” Ohab told the jury, adding he knew investigators would see he moved the body. He explained things were not good after the overdose death of his girlfriend.
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“I had eviction papers. They took my car. There were rumours in the building saying I killed (my girlfriend). I’m so sorry for this happening,” Ohab said.
Defence attorney Philip Klumak asked Ohab if he dismembered Cooper’s body. Ohab admitted he did.
At the beginning of the trial, Ohab pleaded guilty to the charge of indignity to a human body by dismemberment.
Crown attorney Bev Richards told the jury prior to Ohab taking the stand that the lower half of Cooper’s torso was found in a garbage bin behind Charlie’s Meat Shop at 383 Broadview Ave on April 19, 2016. Her arm was discovered in a bag on a conveyor belt at a North York recycling plant in early May 2016.
Richards said the rest of Cooper’s body has never been discovered. Investigators said a cause of death was never determined because not enough of Cooper’s body was recovered.
Ohab was originally charged with first-degree murder but on Tuesday, Justice Suhail Akhtar told the jury, “For legal reasons that don’t really concern you, you will now only be deliberating on the offence of second-degree murder.”
The trial continues.
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