Share this Story: Man brutally killed sister, court hears
Man brutally killed sister, court hears
Michele Mandel
A woman's horrific screams and then her final words, "I'm dying."
Dying at the hands of her own brother.
On Feb. 1, 2013, Jeannine Ross-Armstrong had volunteered to fly to Toronto to pick up her younger sibling and bring him home to his worried family and their doctor in Thunder Bay. Jonathon Ross had been phoning his parents for the last two days crying that he wasn't well, that he hadn't eaten or slept and didn't want to return to Richmond Hill's Corpus Christi Catholic School where he taught Grade 5.
No one was surprised when his big sister volunteered to go. Newly married and heading up her family's garden centre, the 38-year-old was loved for her kind heart and amazing spirit. And she would have known about reaching out to someone in pain — she had gone through so much of her own.
Thirteen years before, Jeannine had flown to Auckland to move in with her New Zealand boyfriend only to find that he wasn't waiting for her at the airport as they'd arranged. Instead, she would have to attend his funeral. While she had been flying across the world to be with him, the telecom technician had been on his way to a job when his helicopter crashed, killing all aboard.
Since then, she had built a new life with a new love. But her brother needed her and she answered the call. Just hours later, she would be dead.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Ross, 36, has admitted brutally killing his sister in his condo at 11121 Yonge St., smashing her head in with at least one heavy object until her brain was shattered and her face unrecognizable.
"Jeannine Ross had also been stabbed by Jonathon Ross six times in the head and back of the neck, three times in the front of the neck and once in the abdomen," Crown attorney Amit Ghosh told the judge-alone trial.
In the condo, police seized crystals, two butcher knives, a sword and a conical sea shell that were all stained with her blood, "These objects were all used by Jonathon Ross at various times during the incident to inflict the injuries to Jeannine Ross," said Ghosh.
Ross, who shuffled into court wearing a black blazer and a glassy stare, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. He nodded at his parents, Tim and Kathy Ross, as they sat in the front row of the small courtroom — bravely lending support to their youngest child, though he has admitted taking the life of their eldest.
His lawyer, Bill Reid, says his client should be found not criminally responsible for his actions on account of a mental disorder.
When Jeannine spoke to her parents hours before she was killed, she told them Jon was acting "weird" and paranoid. On their way to McDonalds he insisted they cross the street to avoid agents who were following him.
Later that night, his neighbours heard a "banging noise" like someone hitting a "boxing bag," a male voice yelling and then the "horrific scream" of a female.
The building's security guard was called to investigate. In his statement, Mazdak Amini said he knocked on the door of suite 412 and stated: "Security." No one came to the door.
Instead, he could hear a woman's voice faintly repeat the words, "I'm dying, I'm dying." Amini banged on the door and warned he was calling police. He heard a slapping sound inside the condo mixed with sounds of something being beaten.
When police arrived a few minutes later, a neighbour heard a man tell them: "Fire your gun. I want to die."
According to the agreed statement, police finally got into the condo with the help of a neighbour's sledgehammer and found a horrifying scene: A female body lying in a pool of blood, her face mutilated.
Covered in so much blood that even his socks were soaked, Ross was arrested for murder. Asked the identity of the dead woman on the floor, he alternately described her as his sister, his aunt and a robot. "I'm sick," he told the officers.
Led outside to a waiting cruiser, there was little he said that made sense except for one question. "How's my sister?" Ross kept asking police. "How's my sister?"
Read Mandel Wednesday through Saturday.
Man brutally killed sister, court hears Back to video