Mom beaten and stabbed 24 times, jury hears
Evidence will show a St. Catharines man was driven by jealousy and suspicion that the mother of his children had started a new relationship when he attacked the woman, beating her about the head and stabbing her two dozen times, a jury heard Tuesday.
Jessica Scanlon, 29, was found dead in the basement of her Chetwood Street home on Feb. 23, 2015.
Her former common-law spouse and the father of her children, Jeremy Gough, has pleaded not guilty in Superior Court of Justice in St. Catharines to a charge of firstdegree murder.
In court Tuesday, assistant Crown attorney Jacqueline Strecansky told the jury the evidence will show Gough on Feb. 23 waited for Scanlon to take their children to school and then entered the family home.
When she returned home, she said, he attacked her.
“She was struck in the head several times and stabbed 24 times in the back,” Strecansky said. “He left her lying on the basement floor in a pool of blood.”
Court heard Scanlon worked at a group home for adults with developmental disabilities through Community Living St. Catharines. She had stopped working shortly before her death due to a number of health issues.
Scanlon was 19 when she first met Gough, who was 10 to 11 years older than her.
The couple had been together for about 10 years before Scanlon asked him to move out in January 2015.
“Jeremy Gough was distraught about the breakup. He begged her to reconsider,” Strecansky said.
In the days leading up to the murder, the jury was told, Gough was becoming increasingly suspicious that Scanlon had started a relationship with another man.
Her sister, Melanie Scanlon, testified her sister had started seeing someone, a man who played on the same baseball team as Gough.
She said she had a close relationship with her sibling and the two would often text each other five to 10 times an hour.
“She was my baby sister … my best friend.
“Everyone loved her spark,” she said. “She was caring, sweet and kind.”
She testified her sister’s relationship with Gough “wasn’t perfect.”
“There were a lot of ups and there were a lot of downs.”
Despite their difficulties, Melanie said her sister did care for Gough, even after they separated.
“She loved him and cared for him, right up to the very end,” she said. “She loved him as the father of her children, as a human being.”
About a month before Scanlon was killed, Gough sent Melanie a series of messages on Facebook.
“I feel dead inside, as if I got run over by train,” Gough wrote. “I just wish she knew how bad she destroyed me.”
On the day of the murder, Melanie said she sent Scanlon several texts, all of which went unanswered.
At 9:45 that night, she answered a knock at her door and two Niagara Regional Police officers told her her sister was dead.
The trial, expected to take four weeks, resumes today.
Gough is being represented by defence lawyers Bobbie Walker and John Lefurgey.