OSHAWA, Ont. — A 33-year-old man beat and killed a woman in a rage hours after they broke up and then killed two of her children, the prosecution at his trial said in closing submissions presented in an Oshawa, Ont., court Monday.
Cory Fenn has pleaded not guilty to three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Krassimira Pejcinovski, 39, her 13-year-old daughter, Venellia, and her 15-year-old son, Roy.
Pejcinovski, Fenn’s on-again, off-again partner, was found dead in the garage of her Ajax, Ont., home, underneath garbage and tires on March 14, 2018. Her son was found strangled next to her bed and her daughter was found stabbed to death in the home’s basement.
“The sheer brutality of his attack demonstrates the intention to kill,” Crown attorney Mike Newell told the court.
Fenn, who is representing himself at trial, has not called a defence and repeatedly referred to himself in court Monday as a “sovereign king.”
“There’s life inside — I was walking dead, I’m animate now,” Fenn, of Ajax, told court. “I have God inside me, I’ve raised myself to a sovereign king.”
Police found Fenn in a shed of a different home later on March 14, 2018. The following day, he told an investigator in a lengthy interview he was in a state of “cocaine psychosis,” court heard.
The Crown took issue with that suggestion.
“The only source of evidence suggesting any level of intoxication comes from Mr. Fenn,” Newell said. “His claim stands alone and uncorroborated by any witness.”
Newell said Pejcinovski’s oldest daughter, Victoria, who was 16 at the time, had discovered cocaine on the stove on March 13, 2018, a day before her mother and two siblings died.
Court heard that Fenn and Pejcinovski used cocaine together. Fenn also sold cocaine, court heard.
Pejcinovski’s daughter confronted her mother about the drugs that night.
“She told her mom that he had to go,” Newell said. “Her mother said she would break up with him.”
Pejcinovski spent much of that night in the basement with Fenn, which was where he lived, court head.
Her older daughter left around 9:30 p.m. to go to her father’s home. She said she became worried the next morning when her mother failed to pick her up for a driving lesson, Newell said.
Victoria Pejcinovski texted her mother repeatedly, but there was no response.
She called her sister, Venellia, who was at the home with a friend who was sleeping over. Shortly after the call at 10:38 a.m., Venellia left the room, Newell said.
At 10:48 a.m., Krassimira Pejcinovski’s boss showed up, worried after her employee had failed to show up to work.
“In those 10 horrible minutes, the accused committed the brutal attack on that little girl,” Newell said. “He blackened both of her eyes, a mask of bruising across her face, forehead and above her left ear.”
Fenn left and returned with a butter knife, stabbed her and shoved her body under a bed, Newell said.
Around that time, Venellia’s friend heard footsteps coming up the stairs. It was Fenn, breathing heavily, she told court. He asked her where Victoria was, the friend had testified.
Sherry Robinson, Pejcinovski’s boss, said Fenn answered the door of the home and claimed Pejcinovski was asleep after doing too many drugs the night prior, court heard.
Robinson noticed blood on Fenn’s arms and foot, Newell said. She left and drove down the street, where she called police.
Meanwhile, Fenn took off, ditched his car and phone at a gas station and then made his way to an ex’s place, where he hid in the shed where police would later find him.
The Crown said it was unclear when Pejcinovski and her son were killed but argued that Fenn likely killed the mother first.
She suffered multiple fractures to her skull and jaw and had 17 fractured ribs and extensive bruising across her face, neck, limbs and torso, Newell said. When she kept breathing after an attempted strangulation, Fenn left the garage and grabbed a knife, court heard.
“I just wanted her to die,” he told the detective, saying he would never have done that if he wasn’t high on cocaine and in some state of psychosis.
Fenn hid her body so well that it took police three hours to find her, Newell said.
“In his rage, he made her suffer,” Newell said. “These are the acts of a conscious mind.”
Pejcinovski’s son had gone to sleep in his mother’s bed after playing video games, Newell said. His body was found next to the bed. Fenn told police he punched and strangled the boy.
“Though Roy may have struggled for his life, he was no match for the massive man who attacked him,” Newell said.
The defence, through a lawyer appointed by the court, is set to give closing arguments next Monday.