Richard Taylor guilty of 1st-degree arson murders of mom, stepdad in Dundas, Ont.

A jury in Hamilton has found Richard Taylor guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the arson deaths of his mother, Carla Rutherford, and stepdad Alan Rutherford after their Dundas, Ont., home was set on fire in 2018.

Now 46, Taylor was a 42-year-old teacher when he was charged in 2019, accused of setting the fire as a means to get an inheritance that would address his financial problems.

The Rutherfords were sleeping in the early hours of July 9, 2018, when a fire ripped through the home Taylor had lived in as a child.

After two days of deliberating, following several weeks of a trial that saw Taylor testify on his own behalf, the jury released their decision Friday afternoon. The trial began in mid-May and the jury began deliberating Wednesday. 

Taylor had pleaded not guilty to both first-degree murder counts. He's been sentenced to the longest term for a first-degree murder conviction: life in prison, with no chance of parole for at least 25 years, to be served concurrently.  

Taylor 'should never see the light of day': judge

Taylor sat with his back to the court while the verdict and victim impact statements were read.

"How you could do that to your loving mother and Alan Rutherford, who showed you nothing but kindness and goodness, is beyond my imagination and beyond the imagination of the jury," Ontario Superior Court Justice Toni Skarica told him before announcing his sentence.

"You are a monster. You should never see the light of day again." 

Taylor received the maximum sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 25 years, to be served concurrently.

Victim impact statements were read by Alan's eldest and youngest daughters.

He was a real person, not just a picture in the newspaper or on a monitor. And that's what I lost. I lost my dad.- Allison Plato, Alan Rutherford's daughter

Allison Plato, the eldest daughter, told the court about how she was the first to arrive at the hospital after hearing what had happened to her father.

"I will never forget the image of him lying there and being told I couldn't touch him, his body was evidence," Plato said through tears. 

"No one should have to say goodbye to their parents while the police are monitoring close by," Amelia Ryan told the court. 

"It was the most traumatic day of my life."

Dad died 'without ever being hugged goodbye'

When his daughters were finally allowed to enter the room to see him, Alan was in a medically induced coma, so there was no chance to talk with him when he was alert, Ryan said.

"Hearing from the doctors that there was nothing that could be done except to keep him comfortable was devastating."

Plato said: "We wanted to talk to him, we wanted to tell him it would be all right. It wasn't until later that we learned of the extent of his injuries.

"He died around 3 p.m. July 9 without ever being hugged goodbye.

"What I'd most like to convey to you all is that he was real," Plato added.

"When you hugged him, he was warm and solid. He smelled like a warm musk. His hands were rough. His moustache tickled and he had gaps in his teeth.

"He was a real person, not just a picture in the newspaper or on a monitor. And that's what I lost. I lost my dad."

Ryan said she had to wait four years "to hear the details of what happened the night of the fire to protect the integrity of the case, and haven't been able to have closure." 

"Hearing your dad is a hero isn't very comforting knowing that someone could do something like this on purpose," Ryan said, referring to the trial hearing that her dad acted heroically in trying to save his wife's life. "Having heard everything now, I feel so sad and angry that they died for such a selfish and twisted reason.

"Most of all I am devastated that my unborn child and any future children will never have my dad as a grandfather." 

Taylor was provided the opportunity to speak but chose not to. 

Taylor lied for years about money issues, trial heard

The married father of two was living in Oakville, Ont., and teaching at an elementary school in Hamilton at the time of his arrest.

In final arguments in court Monday, Crown prosecutor Janet Booy painted a picture of a man who had spent years lying to loved ones about the extent of his financial struggles, saying Taylor plotted to kill the Rutherfords to get over $400,000 worth of inheritance money, in a last-ditch effort to end his debt and spare his pride.

Defence lawyer Jennifer Penman argued while Taylor was a "financial disaster" and lied about it, he had enough money to pay off his debts, but wasn't in a rush to do so, and loved his family too much to commit the crime.

The jury dismissed that defence Friday.

The fire at the Rutherfords' single-storey home on Greening Court erupted at roughly 3:30 a.m. ET.

Booy said previously in court that Taylor quietly entered the home using a spare key before getting to the master bedroom, poured petroleum around the bed the Rutherfords were sleeping in and ignited it from the doorway with a match. He then ran out of the house, according to the lawyer. 

Flames engulfed the room and the doorway, forcing Alan to escape out the bedroom window, Booy said.

Despite almost all of his body being burned, the 63-year-old tried to get back into the home to try to save his wife and two dogs, court heard. He managed to spare one canine.

"He's the hero of this tragedy," Booy said.

After Alan escaped again, he approached his neighbours and told them he tried to save Carla but she was still inside — and he blamed the fire on his stepson, the jury was told.

"Alan is literally on death's doorstep … he knows he's going to die and his last breath, he tells you who did it. He tells you, 'It's Rich.' Those are powerful words," Booy said.

On Friday, Skarica said to Taylor that Alan "was brave enough and strong enough to go next to the neighbours door and tell us, all of us, in his dying breath, that you were the one that murdered him and your mother.

"And had he not of done that, in my view of the evidence, if you take away his dying declaration, you would have gotten away with it."

Firefighters got Carla out of the home, but the 64-year-old died on the way to hospital.