Two men accused of murdering a live-in maid at a stately Mississauga mansion three years ago blame each other for the crime, while the Crown alleges they worked as a team – “one to hold, one to find the wire” for strangling her.
Jocelyn Dulnuan, 27, was found slain on Oct. 1, 2007, her body laying face-up behind a closed bedroom door with copper wire wrapped tightly around her neck and one hand.
“Unsuccessful efforts were being made to tie her hands … when the agenda turned to murder,” Crown attorney Steve Sherriff said in his opening address.
There was clear evidence of violence in the kitchen near Ms. Dulnuan’s bedroom, the jury heard: the victim’s denture plate had been knocked from her mouth, and a bloodied dish cloth lay in the sink.
The Crown alleges Ms. Dulnuan died during a burglary planned by co-accused Fabian Loayza-Penaloza and Cristian Figueroa that went tragically awry. Mr. Loayza-Penaloza, in a black suit and shaved head, and Mr. Figueroa, wearing glasses and listening through the aid of a Spanish translator, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder as their joint trial opened in Superior Court yesterday.
“[Ms. Dulnuan] turned out to be the only protection for the house…. Controlling and silencing her became a two-man job,” Crown attorney Steve Sherriff said.
Ms. Dulnuan was alone inside the mansion during the brazen daylight break-in; the owners were not at home, the jury heard, and only later would they find out a quantity of cash, jewelry and electronics had been stolen.
A safe removed from the home was ultimately found floating in a canal near Barrie.
Both Mr. Loayza-Penaloza and Mr. Figueroa were tradesmen who knew the area well, having worked on a variety of houses in the “exclusive neighbourhood,” Mr. Sherriff noted. In fact, Mr. Loayza-Penaloza had been employed as a painter in the very home the pair allegedly targeted.
Ms. Dulnuan, who had met Mr. Loayza-Penaloza on a previous occasion, was the only obstacle to a successful robbery, the Crown alleged.
Defence laywer Paul Mergler, who is representing Mr. Loayza-Penaloza, called the crime “gut-wrenching, despicable and so terribly senseless … a human life for a fistful of dollars.”
But he placed the blame on his client’s co-accused, Mr. Figueroa, whose DNA was found underneath the victim’s fingernails.
“There are no direct fingers pointing at [Mr. Loayza-Penaloza] as the killer,” Mr. Mergler said.
But Robert Tomovski, who is acting for Mr. Figueroa, contended his client was busy trying to pry the safe out of an upstairs closet when his co-accused turned to murder. When Mr. Figueroa stumbled upon his accomplice strangling the victim to death, he tried to intervene, Mr. Tomovski said, but it was “too little, too late.”
“Cristian is a thief, but he is not a killer,” Mr. Tomovski said.
The Crown maintains it was a two-man murder, saying Mr. Loayza-Penaloza knew where to find the copper wire from his previous employment at the 30,000-square-foot estate.
Through statements from Mr. Loayza-Penaloza’s ex-wife, who has been charged with perjury and as an accessory after the fact to the crime, her husband’s own role became clearer, the Crown says. His wife, identified in court as Sylvia, said she had dreams about Mr. Loayza-Penaloza planning the burglary and murdering Ms. Dulnuan, providing accurate details of the scene, Mr. Sherriff said.
On the day she died, Ms. Dulnuan was employed on a valid work visa and had been sending money home to her husband and daughter in the Phillippines, the court heard.
The trial resumes Tuesday, with the jury to tour the mansion where she died.
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