‘Yes I did it,’ triple killer texted as police closed in
Brother, coached by police negotiator, was in touch with suspect, court hears
Arthur Borutski stood on the roadside near his family’s old hunting camp in rural west Ottawa and texted his brother: “Hands up. No gun.”
He then handed his cellphone to the Ottawa police negotiator who was coaching him at his side, as a police tactical unit moved in to arrest Basil Borutski, the only suspect in a triple-homicide committed in Renfrew County earlier that day.
Ottawa police negotiator Sgt. Cory Robertson testified about that arrest Tuesday, during Borutski’s trial, throughout which the accused has remained silent as he represents himself on three counts of first-degree murder in the Sept. 22, 2015, killings of Carol Culleton, 66, Anastasia Kuzyk, 36, and Nathalie Warmerdam, 48.
Arthur Borutski was already with police when Robertson arrived to the mobile command post at the corner of Becks Road and Kinburn Side Road. Robertson, then a West Division neighbourhood officer stationed in Kanata, was in plainclothes after answering a 2 p.m. radio call requesting negotiators, and donned body armour over his T-shirt and jeans.
Robertson testified he quickly established a rapport with Arthur Borutski, who he understood had been texting the accused, and had arrived to the scene after Basil Borutski was spotted in a nearby field by an OPP helicopter.
“Hands on your head … Nobody wants to hurt you. Just follow instructions,” Robertson texted after taking control of the phone.
Court had earlier heard evidence of Borutski’s cellphone records, including a lengthy text message tirade to one of the victims, Culleton, on the eve of the killings.
Robertson said as he texted police instructions from Arthur Borutski’s phone, he read through the recent exchange the suspect had with his brother.
“Yes I did it … they took my life away on me … I was innocent of every charge ever laid against me,” Borutski texted the contact he called “Bunker,” confirmed in court by Robertson as Arthur Borutski.
“If they would have listened to me none of this would have happened,” Borutski continued.
“I was not guilty, the system destroyed me. I have nothing left, not even my dignity … I done what I had to do … justice … I paid a big price for caring and helping.”
Borutski texted a line he repeats to a police detective during an interrogation the following morning: “Murder is killing something innocent. I didn’t … I asked for God’s help.”
“We don’t want you to die today,” Bunker replies. “Put your hands up … Walk to us, no gun.”
A tactical team was, at the time, closing in through the woods to the field where Borutski stood, as an OPP helicopter and OPS Cessna circled overhead.
“I’m standing in middle of field, no gun, nothing Bunker,” Borutski texts, adding, “I wrote out lots.”
Police identification officers testified later Tuesday they recovered a spiral-bound notebook near the spot of Borutski’s arrest. Its contents were not revealed to the jury, though Crown prosecutor Jeffery Richardson referred to an opening entry: “I hate money.”
Court heard police also found a shotgun and a plastic bag of ammunition lying in the grass with a note impaled on a nearby branch, reading, “I have no gun. Don’t murder me. I give up.”
Robertson said he had to overcome Arthur Borutski’s distrust of police, and gradually began coaching him through his brother’s arrest. Robertson’s orders were to “make all efforts to seek a peaceful surrender,” he testified.
Tactical unit member Const. Dan Thompson told court Monday the team had difficulty shouting instructions to the suspect, until eventually waving the noisy helicopter to a higher altitude as they closed in.
“The negotiator is texting you now,” Robertson texted to Borutski. “Hands on your head.”
Police on the ground and in the air saw Borutski “fidgeting” with something in his hand minutes before his arrest.
He was sending his last text before surrendering: “I have post traumatic stress disorder from all the abuse from police the system, I guess they all give me another beating or two.”
The Crown on Tuesday called six police witnesses involved in the arrest, and in processing the evidence collected from the scene, with no cross-examination and no participation from Borutski.