Jury finds Kwasi Benjamin guilty of 2nd-degree murder in death of Inuk woman
Crown hopes verdict in Nellie Angutiguluk case gives Indigenous people hope that 'justice system does work'
After two days of deliberations, a jury has returned a verdict of guilty in the second-degree murder trial of Kwasi Benjamin.
A jury of six men and six women delivered its verdict Wednesday afternoon at the Montreal courthouse.
The 32-year-old man was charged in connection with the 2015 death of Nellie Angutiguluk, 29.
The Inuk mother of three moved to Montreal from the northern Quebec community of Puvirnituq. She was found dead in the apartment she shared with Benjamin on de Nancy Street in Côte-des-Neiges on May 18, 2015.
"Obviously I'm satisfied with [the verdict]. I hope, more importantly, that the family of the victim will be satisfied," Crown prosecutor Dennis Galiatsatos told CBC outside the courtroom.
"Hopefully this provide her mother with at least some measure of closure. Obviously, the verdict will never bring her daughter back, but at least this part of her life will be past the judicial proceedings."
'System does work,' says Crown
Galiatsatos said that following the recent Colten Boushie and Tina Fontaine not-guilty verdicts, he hopes this verdict will also bring solace to Indigenous people across Canada.
"A few Aboriginal communities in the country have felt that the justice system has let them down," Galiatsatos said.
"I can only hope that this file will give them hope … that the system does work, and I certainly hope that's part of the message that this verdict will send."
When the guilty verdict was read, Benjamin looked slowly around the courtroom. Once the jurors left the courtroom, he stood up and spoke emotionally with his lawyer, repeating, "We're going to appeal."
"He's angry, and he's disappointed. I could understand that reaction," defence lawyer Paul Skolnik said about his client. "We'll have to look at the records and see if there are any grounds of appeal."
2 days of deliberations
The jury began its deliberations Monday afternoon. The six-week trial heard from 30 witnesses for the Crown and another four, including Benjamin, for the defence.
The Crown argued Benjamin killed Angutiguluk for two reasons: money problems between the couple, and the fact that the accused wanted Angutiguluk out of the way because he had a new girlfriend.
Testimony during the trial showed the two often argued over money. Benjamin said he would pay for Angutiguluk, who was unemployed. He testified she would get upset whenever he brought up the topic of saving money instead of spending it on alcohol.
"Some of the very last words heard spoken by the accused to the deceased were, 'Where's the f--king money?'" Galiatsatos told the jury during his closing arguments.
He also reminded the jury that two witnesses testified that Benjamin spoke of having a new girlfriend.
The pathologist who testified for the prosecution, Dr. Caroline Tanguay, concluded that Angutiguluk died of ligature strangulation. She said the furrow marks on the dead woman's neck are consistent with those of someone who has been strangled by someone with a cable or a cord.
Because it was deemed inadmissible evidence, the jury did not hear that Benjamin had been released from jail just three days before Angutiguluk's death.
On May 9, 2015, after the couple had a violent argument in a Dorval parking lot, Benjamin was arrested and held for several days, charged with assaulting Angutiguluk. He was under court order not to communicate with her or to be in her presence.
'Not a murder,' defence argued
In his defence of Benjamin, lawyer Paul Skolnik told the jury that the main issue in the trial was whether Angituguluk's death was murder or suicide. "I put it to you that it's not a murder," Skolnik said in his closing arguments.
He painted the picture of a depressed Angutiguluk who had tried to hang herself in their apartment in the weeks before she died.
Benjamin testified that he stopped her in the process of similar suicide attempts in the weeks before she died.
Benjamin testified he found her unconscious, sitting on the floor beside the bedroom closet, on the night she died. He said he thought she had passed out from the night of heavy drinking and put her in bed believing she was asleep.