Warning: This story contains graphic details, reader discretion advised.
The trial for Nicholas Johnson, accused of the second-degree murder of 31-year-old Virgil Jack, began at the University Avenue courthouse on Monday.
On Aug. 19, 2017, Toronto police were called to Derrydowns Park after a passerby said they found a body.
Police said Jack was found partially submerged in a stream in a wooded area of the park, near Jane Street and Finch Avenue.
On Monday, a jury made up of eight woman and four men heard that an autopsy revealed that Jack had at least 156 sharp force injuries on her body, including 126 stab wounds. The pathologist who performed the autopsy concluded her cause of death was multiple stab wounds.
Crown attorney Georgette Gaganiaras told the jury in her opening remarks that a friend of the victim is expected to testify that just three days before Jack was found dead, Jack told her she had formed an attachment to a man at work and Jack asked that friend for a sample of her urine because she wanted to fake a pregnancy test.
That friend did not provide Jack with any urine, the crown continued.
Gaganiaras also told the jury they will hear from a colleague who worked with both the victim and the suspect. She said that co-worker is expected to testify that just two days before Jack was found dead, she walked into a washroom at work and found Jack holding a positive pregnancy test.
The colleague, Gaganiaras said, will testify that Jack told her she had begun seeing Johnson at the beginning of July 2017 when another woman who they worked with, who was also a relationship with Johnson, went away on a vacation.
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The jury is also expected to her from the other woman Johnson was seeing at the time Jack was killed.
READ MORE: Body of female stabbing victim located in North York’s Derrydowns Park
Johnson provided two statements to police, according to the crown. The first was on Aug. 22, 2017, at which point Johnson admitted to police that he had become involved with Jack and that she had told him that she was pregnant.
But at that time, Johnson denied ever being in Derrydowns Park with Jack and also denied any involvement in her death.
On Jan. 11, 2018, Johnson, then 24 years old was arrested. He then told officers he was actually at Derrydowns Park with Virgil Jack on Aug. 18, 2017.
Det.-Const. Scott Grondin, a forensic identification officer, was the first witness to testify. Grondin told the jury he was sent to the park on Aug. 19 after Jack’s body was found.
Grondin testified Jack’s cell phone was found in the stream not far from where her body was found. He said he also found a shoe, a hat and tire tracks at the park.
Gaganiaras told the jury that a forensic examination of Johnson’s car revealed scraping on the underside of his car and found what appears to be transferred material. She said it appeared to match material found on a concrete barrier in the park.
The jury then heard that a rubber stopper was also missing from the undercarriage of Johnson’s car. The police returned to the park and located a similar rubber stopper near the curb.
Gaganiaras also said the jury was expected to hear that blood was found in Johnson’s car and that DNA analysis could not exclude Johnson as the source of the blood.
However, Johnson’s lawyer Tony Bryant then made three admissions.
Bryant conceded that Johnson’s blood was found in the car, that the scrapping on the concrete barrier was from Johnson’s car and that the rubber stopper found in the parking lot was also from Johnson’s car.
Gaganiaras told the jury that data was retrieved from Jack’s phone showing that Johnson and Jack had exchanged a series of WhatsApp text messages on the day she was last seen, including a text message sent by Johnson at 2:31 p.m. that said, “Don’t tell your sister I see you.”
The jury is also expected to see video surveillance seized from Jack’s residence. She is seen leaving the building at 2:35 pm on Aug. 18.
Johnson has pleaded not guilty. The trial is expected to last about a month.
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