Lovers convicted again at retrial for first-degree murder in brutal slaying
It was a secret love affair between OC Transpo drivers that ended in cold blood, and on Tuesday, Gurpreet Ronald and Bhupinderpal Gill were condemned to life in prison for the 2014 savage killing of Jagtar Gill, a much-loved Barrhaven mom.
Jagtar, 43, was viciously slashed and bludgeoned to death as she lay weak and vulnerable on the living room couch, recovering from surgery. It was Jan. 29, 2014, the 17th anniversary of her doomed, arranged marriage to Gill.
Gill, 41 at the time, didn't want to lose half of the marital assets in a divorce, including properties, cash and gold, so the secret lovers hatched a murder plot that had Ronald attacking the ailing Jagtar at a prescribed time to give her secret lover a “rock-solid” alibi. Gill even persuaded his daughter to go to Sobey's with him to get a cake and flowers to celebrate the wedding anniversary. This gave him an alibi and left their vulnerable target home alone.
But the murder didn't go as planned because they didn't count on Jagtar, recovering from surgery and groggy from medication, to fight for her life. Gill left the front door unlocked, and left out a weightlifting bar for Ronald to bludgeon his wife to death, but when Jagtar fought back, Ronald fetched some kitchen knives, including a butcher's knife.
In the frenzied killing, Ronald bludgeoned Jagtar at least 20 times, stabbed her 20 times, then slit her throat. The blunt wounds were severe, the stab wounds deep.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne London-Weinstein described the injuries as horrifying and disturbing as she read her guilty verdict at the judge-alone trial on Tuesday. The judge found both Ronald and Gill guilty of first-degree murder after weeks of hearing evidence gathered by top homicide detectives.
It's the second time the secret lovers have been found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2014 slaying. Back in 2016, a jury also didn't buy their wild cover stories about how they just happened on the murder scene after the fact and hid the murder weapons for fear they'd be blamed for it.
They won new trials after the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled the original trial judge made serious legal errors.
They had a lot to explain away and when they took the stand in their own defence at their new trial, the judge found their testimony wasn't credible.
Both said they had nothing to do with the murder. Gill even kept the receipt from the Sobey's and offered to take a polygraph for good measure. (Results from lie detector tests aren't admissible in court.) He even let the police search his place without a warrant.
Ronald testified that she stumbled on the murder when she went to get her tools at the Gill home, where she had helped on a renovation. She said she found Jagtar dead and bloodied but didn't call 911 on her cellphone for fear she'd be blamed for it.
Ronald, after killing Jagtar, went to Sobey's where she met up with her lover turned partner in murder to tell him it didn't go exactly as planned. They spoke privately and out of earshot of Gill's daughter.
There was blood spatter all over the home, including Ronald's blood when she nicked her finger in the attack. She brought rubber gloves to conceal her DNA but they came back to haunt her. When her left ring finger was nicked in the killing, the bloody tip of the glove was left at the scene and it was a match for the gloves she dumped in a rural area. The gloves were found and entered as key Crown evidence.
Gill, with the flowers and grocery-store cake, and daughter in tow, drove home and let his daughter enter the home first, knowing she was walking into the most awful discovery. He orchestrated this life-altering, cruel event so he could insulate himself from the “planned and deliberate” murder, the judge said.
The teen found her mother dead on the living-room floor.
Instead of calling 911, Gill made quick work of washing the bloody knives to conceal the identity of the sloppy killer. Gill also hid the weightlifting bar in a box for a fake Christmas tree in the basement.
After finding the murder weapon in the Christmas-tree box, detectives set up a secret video camera that later captured Gill retrieving it to get rid of the key piece of evidence, which was recovered.
Gill's defence lawyer, James Harbic, said Tuesday that his client was devastated by the verdict
Meanwhile, Michael Spratt, the defence lawyer for Ronald, said his client is “obviously disappointed with today's decision.”
A conviction for first-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no parole eligibility for 25 years.
The secret lovers have been behind bars since 2014. They both have good inmate records, and Ronald works as a prison hairdresser. They'll be eligible for parole around 2038.