Affair led to `particularly brutal' murder, Crown says
Two OC Transpo drivers involved in an illicit love affair plotted and carried out the “particularly brutal” murder of the Barrhaven woman who stood in the way of their life together, a court has heard.
In his opening statement Monday in the first-degree murder trial of co-defendants Bhupinderpal Gill and Gurpreet Ronald, Crown attorney Jason Neubauer said Gill's wife, Jagtar, was beaten with a metal bar and stabbed on Jan. 29, 2014, in the family room of her home.
Jagtar, 43, a doting mother of three, was convalescing from abdominal surgery at the time.
“Mr. Gill and Ms. Ronald were determined to be together,” Neubauer told court. “The Crown alleges that Mr. Gill and Ms. Ronald together made the decision to murder Jagtar, devised and accepted
their respective roles in the killing, and carried out their plan on a day when Jagtar was most vulnerable.”
Gill and Ronald have pleaded not guilty.
Neubaeur told court that Gill's agreed-upon role was to ensure his wife was alone so that Ronald could enter the home and kill Jagtar. They both disposed of bloodstained weapons, he said.
During the attack, Neubauer said, Jagtar was beaten and bludgeoned with a weightlifting bar, and stabbed repeatedly across the abdomen, wrist and throat. Her left wrist was cut to the bone, he said, and she suffered cuts, bruises and fractures to her forearms as “she did what she could to defend herself.”
“Jagtar was a strong woman,” Neubauer said. “However, unlike her killer, she was unarmed, unaware of what was about to happen and weakened by the effects of recent surgery.”
The Crown expects to call about 30 witnesses in what is scheduled to be a two-month trial.
Neubauer said the Crown will present evidence to show that Gill and Ronald, both married, were involved in a long-standing affair. They lived in the same neighbourhood, worked at the same place, OC Transpo, and helped each other with home renovations, he said.
Court will hear, he said, that Gill and Ronald hired a consultant, who was both a life coach and a clairvoyant, for advice on how they could be together.
That woman, Neubauer said, is expected to testify that Gill told her he hated Jagtar, that divorce was not an option for him, and that he would do anything to get rid of his wife.
Cellphone records will also be presented, Neubauer said, that show Ronald and Gill spoke more than 250 times in the month before Jagtar's murder.
On the day of the crime, he said, the Gills' two youngest children had gone to school and their eldest daughter, Dilpreet, 15, was at home studying for an exam.
Just before 11 a.m., Gill asked his daughter to join him as he ran some errands. Dilpreet was reluctant but agreed to go, Neubauer said.
Gill and Dilpreet were out for about two hours, he told court, during which time Ronald called him three times on his cellphone. They also met in the parking lot of a Sobeys grocery store, just before Gill, Dilpreet and a nephew returned to the Brambling Way home.
Dilpreet and the nephew went inside first and discovered Jagtar lying dead on the carpet, covered in blood.
Court will hear, Neubaeur said, that in the five minutes before police arrived, Gill picked up two bloodstained knives and washed them.
He also retrieved the bloodstained weightlifting bar and hid it in the basement with some holiday decorations.
Gill would later tell police that he had washed the knives because he had touched them.
Police found the weightlifting bar hidden in the basement, Neubauer said, and planted a replica in the same place. They installed a hidden camera that later captured Gill removing the metal bar, tucking it under his clothes and going upstairs, he said.
Undercover officers then trailed him and watched as Gill drove to a wooded area and tossed the bar into the bush, court heard.
Drops of Ronald's blood were found in the family room, kitchen, and on the second storey of the home, Neubauer said