OSHAWA, Ont. — An Ontario man has been found guilty of three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of a woman and two of her children east of Toronto, with the presiding judge calling the attacks “vicious and brutal.”
Cory Fenn had pleaded not guilty to three counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of 39-year-old Krassimira Pejcinovski, her 13-year-old daughter, Venellia, and her 14-year-old son, Roy.
Justice Howard Leibowich did not buy Fenn’s argument that he was in a state of psychosis at the time brought on by a five-day cocaine binge.
“Vicious and brutal are some of the descriptors I can use to describe the attacks,” Leibowich told court in his ruling on Thursday.
The prosecution had said Fenn killed all three in a rage on March 14, 2018, in Ajax, Ont., after Krassimira Pejcinovski broke up with him. The mother and her daughter were found stabbed to death, while the boy was strangled.
Fenn argued he did not have the mental ability to commit the crimes, but did not call a defence.
A court-appointed lawyer assisting Fenn said the man killed all three, but argued he did not have the requisite state of mind to commit murder due to his extensive use of cocaine, rendering him in a psychotic state at the time.
Court heard that Fenn and Pejcinovski had an on-again, off-again relationship while Fenn lived in the basement of Pejcinovski’s home.
“Mr. Fenn and Krissy were involved in an unhealthy, toxic relationship,” Liebowich said.
The Crown said Pejcinovski’s oldest daughter, Victoria, who was 16 at the time, had found cocaine on the stove the day before the deaths. She confronted her mother and told her Fenn had to go, she testified. Krassimira Pejcinovski agreed and said she would break up with Fenn.
Pejcinovski spent much of that night in the basement with Fenn, which she often did in the past, court heard, the pair snorting cocaine together.
Her oldest daughter left around 9:30 p.m. to go to her father’s home and told court she became worried when her mother failed to pick her up for a driving lesson the following morning.
When her mother failed to respond to text messages, she called her younger sister, who was in her bedroom with her friend for a sleepover, court heard. Vana, as she was known, left the room to go check on her mom, court heard.
Shortly after that, the Crown said, Fenn attacked the girl, leaving her eyes blackened, stabbed her with a butter knife and stuffed her body under a bed.
The friend who was in the home for the sleepover testified she heard Fenn coming up the stairs, breathing heavily. He asked her where Victoria was, before turning around returning downstairs, leaving her unharmed.
Shortly afterward, Krissy Pejcinovski’s boss showed up, worried after her employee had failed to show up to work.
Sherry Robinson testified she noticed blood on Fenn’s arms and foot. She left, drove down the street and called police.
Fenn took off in his car, which he later ditched at a gas station, and went to an ex’s place. Police found him later that day hiding in a shed.
Pejcinovski suffered multiple fractures to her skull and jaw, had 17 fractured ribs and extensive bruising across her face, neck, torso and limbs, court heard. When she kept breathing after an attempted strangulation in the garage, Fenn left to grab a knife and returned.
The judge said he did know the reason of Fenn’s attack on Pejcinovski, but that the motive did not matter.
“Mr. Fenn had the state of mind that when his initial method was not accomplishing his goal, he went to get a knife to finish the job,” the judge said.
The judge found that Fenn had killed Pejcinovski and Roy by 5 a.m.
Fenn said he never would have done it if he wasn’t high on cocaine, court heard.
In closing arguments in late October, Fenn said he was like “the walking dead” at the time of the killings.
“The mental element was not there,” he said. “It’s like the Wizard of Oz going down the path, ‘if I only had a brain’ — I didn’t have one, guys.”