One acquittal, one mistrial in death of jailed inmate
A dramatic end to the trial of two former Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC) staffers freed one man, sent another one back to court and left the mother of a third furious at the justice system. After two days of deliberating, a jury Tuesday night acquitted former operations manager Stephen Jurkus of failing to provide the necessaries of life to inmate Adam Kargus, who was murdered in his cell Oct. 31, 2013.
But the jury could not reach a decision on the same charge against co-accused, former correctional officer Leslie Lonsbary.
That led to the declaration of a mistrial and will see Lonsbary back in court again next week.
“As a family, we are really disappointed,” Kargus’s mother, Deb Abrams, said shortly after a verdict was reached about 9 p.m. Tuesday. “We feel like no one really cares. There is no justice and that verdict and lack of a verdict means there’s not going to be changes, and that’s what we wanted for our son, for other inmates.”
Kargus, 29, of Sarnia, was serving 90 days at the provincial jail in London after being convicted of using false identification to get tax refunds and cellphones. His EMDC cellmate, Anthony George, had a long history of violent crimes triggered by alcohol. George was suspected of being drunk and having homemade alcohol in his cell on the evening of Oct. 31, 2013. Correctional officer Greg Langford testified at the trial that he wrote “possible brew” in the control room he shared with Lonsbary. Langford also testified he told Jurkus, an operations manager working on a different floor, about George being drunk.
The Crown alleged Jurkus took no action, such as telling anyone about George’s condition, moving one of the inmates out of the cell or conducting a search for the illicit alcohol, or brew.
Jurkus’s lawyer, Pat Ducharme of Windsor, argued that his client had only a slight amount of information on which to act, and wasn’t in charge of that unit at the time. “It’s been a long road, it’s been about six years for Mr. Jurkus,” Ducharme said after the acquittal. “He’s obviously happy this has been lifted from his shoulders. He felt strongly along he was not guilty of this offence.”
Kargus never should have died, Ducharme said, and Jurkus feels for his family.
“Mr. Kargus should have been protected. Our simple defence was it did not relate to anything Mr. Jurkus did.”
The Crown alleged Lonsbary also took no action, despite the note about the possible brew and despite hearing noises in the unit when George was beating Kargus to death.
The jury saw video surveillance showing Lonsbary walking toward, but not into, the unit, and later on, closing the door to the control room where he was stationed that night.
No one checked the unit for an hour and a half, including the hour of the assault.
The jury spent about six hours deliberating Monday, but just before 2 p.m. Tuesday, sent a note to Superior Court Justice Jonathon George saying they had reached a decision on one accused, but could not reach a unanimous decision on the other.
Justice George called jurors back in at 8:45 p.m. and heard their verdict on Jurkus and their lack of agreement on Lonsbary. He discharged the jury and a mistrial was called.
Lonsbary is to appear in court next week to begin the process again.