Canada's liberal media has completely avoided this story...
"A lesbian accused of murdering her lover’s boyfriend was “pumped up into a frenzy of hate” by her girlfriend’s propaganda, a jury was told.
“Nicola ‘Nicky’ Puddicombe was a master manipulator who carried on sexual relationships with Dennis Hoy and Ashleigh Pechaluk at the same time,” Madam Justice Mary Lou Benotto said in giving her final instructions or charge as she outlined the prosecution’s case to the jury .
The jury, which began its deliberations at 3 p.m. today, is now deciding whether Pechaluk is the axe-wielding assassin who killed Hoy in a plot executed by her and Puddicombe so that the lesbian lovers would be free of his meddling.
Pechaluk, 24, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the Oct. 27, 2006, slaying. She maintains her innocence, saying she never intended to kill Hoy. Once she rejected the scheme at the last hour, Puddicombe alone murdered him.
Benotto said the jury members must first understand the dynamics of the love triangle involving Puddicombe, Hoy and Pechaluk before they can determine if the prosecution has proved its case against Pechaluk.
“Puddicombe had Ashleigh Pechaluk believing she (Puddicombe) was being forced to have sex with Dennis Hoy,” Benotto said in her charge today.
“She wanted to pump up Ashleigh into a frenzy of hate, so that she could kill Dennis Hoy,” Benotto said. Hoy was found bludgeoned to death by an axe as he slept in Puddicombe’s bed.
Puddicombe convinced Pechaluk that Hoy, a GO Transit officer and her boyfriend for 11 years, was a high-ranking member of the Hells Angels motorcyle gang, a killer and a drug dealer, Benotto said. Pechaluk also believed that Hoy “controlled Puddicombe,” although there’s “no evidence of that (or of criminal activities by Hoy),” Benotto said.
The judge said there was evidence that Puddicombe controlled Pechaluk, after the two met while working at Loblaws in 2005. Puddicombe once shoved a shopping cart into Pechaluk’s leg because she was spending a break with Sarah Sousa, a co-worker and confidante, a friendship that Puddicombe didn't like.
Pechaluk divulged details of the murder scheme to Sousa, who became a key Crown witness. Sousa knew inside details of the plan, including what Puddicombe would tell the 911 operator and police and where the assassin would have found a murder weapon inside their home.
This was particularly telling because Sousa had never visited their two-storey Queensway Ave. apartment above a laundromat where Puddicombe and Pechaluk were both living at the time of Hoy’s murder.
Puddicombe, now 36, will go on trial, starting on Monday in front of Benotto. The trial is expected to last six weeks."
torontosun.com |
