Jury never told about alleged sexual assault in Little murder trial

The jury hearing the double-murder trial of Christopher Little was never told about a video that showed Mr. Little allegedly sexually assaulting his unconscious wife, Julie Crocker.

The video, shot on a pinhole camera secretly installed above the Markham couple’s bed, was kept from the jury because Justice Michelle Fuerst had ruled its seizure had violated his rights.

“The police also found a wireless pin-hole camera and a digital video that showed Mr. Little apparently sexually assaulting an unconscious Julie Crocker,” Judge Fuerst wrote in a decision ruling Mr. Little’s Section 8 Charter Rights were violated. Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms refers to a person’s right to be secure from unreasonable search or seizure.

The six-man, six-woman, jury began deliberations on Monday, and will resume Tuesday morning. Because jurors are sequestered, media outlets are now free to report on the earlier ruling.

Mr. Little is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his wife and physiotherapist Paula Menendez on Feb. 12, 2007.

Mr. Little, a 38-year-old fiberglass salesman, has been accused of staging a murder suicide scene at his home in the deaths.

The Crown has alleged Little killed Crocker out of jealousy and designed the crime to look like a murder-suicide, slaying Ms. Menendez in the process. Ms. Crocker was in a relationship with Ms. Menendez’s estranged husband, Rick Ralph.

Outside the Newmarket courtroom Monday, Carolina Stubbs, Menendez’s twin sister, had a message for the jury.

“They’ll do the right thing. That’s all we know,” she said.

In a separate ruling on what evidence the jury could see, Judge Fuerst ruled that apparent statements made by Ms. Menendez to her psychotherapist, Paul Dilworth, about her relationship with Mr. Ralph were not admissible in court.

“Mr. Dilworth testified that he did not note Ms. Menendez’s words and cannot recount verbatim what she said to him at any session,” reads the ruling.

The ruling also notes that on Nov. 3, 2006, Mr. Dilworth had met with Ms. Menendez and wrote in his notes that “Paula seemed a little sad but also more optimistic and a little anxious. She talks about her relationship in the past tense and seems less hurt with Rick. Paula talked about ways of meeting people and especially how to begin dating men.”

Other statements deemed inadmissible included comments apparently made by Ms. Menendez to Thomas Berger, a real estate broker and a friend’s brother. According to the ruling, Mr. Berger had spoken to Ms. Menendez over the phone a week before her death about lease space for a clinic she was opening.

“When Mr. Berger asked how she was doing, she said words to the effect that everything was great, she was excited about opening her own clinic, and she was looking forward to moving on to the next phase of her life,” reads the ruling.

According to the document, the judge said that as Mr. Berger was about to find real estate for Ms. Menedez, she had reason to present herself as “comfortable with her circumstances and confident about her future even if this were untrue or an exaggeration.”

With files from Darryl Konynenbelt, Global News