Couple pleads guilty in Halifax woman’s horrific murder
Editor’s note: Contains details some might find disturbing.
A Nova Scotia couple has been sentenced to life in prison for the killing and horrific dismemberment of a young Halifax mother who pleaded with them to spare her life.
Jason James Johnson and Kelly Amanda MacDonald, who are both in their 30s, pled guilty Thursday to second-degree murder and interfering with human remains in the death of Catie Miller, 29.
“She pleaded for her life but you ignored her pleas,” Justice Patrick Duncan told them as he ruled Johnson would be eligible for parole in 20 years, and MacDonald in 16 years.
In an agreed statement of facts read by prosecutor Robert Kennedy, the court heard that on July 15, 2014, Johnson beat Miller with a tire iron and confined her in the trunk of his Pontiac Grand Prix.
He met MacDonald in Enfield and with their child in the back seat, they drove to Lawrencetown, where they lived, as Miller awoke and screamed, “Jason you don’t have to do this!”
The court heard that MacDonald told Johnson to “finish her off.”
At one point, he stopped and cut her throat. The prosecutor said when Miller continued to make noise in the trunk, MacDonald again urged her common-law partner to “finish it,” and he repeated the act.
The pair went to another residence in Sheet Harbour late that night, where tarps and tools were laid out on the lawn.
Johnson severed body parts, “to prevent her identification through dental and fingerprint records,” according to the agreed statement of facts.