Prisoner’s outburst described in court

Convicted killer threatened to kick out cruiser window

Convicted killer Jeffrey Verdon threatened to kick the back window out of a police cruiser after he was refused a demand to listen to Hot 89.9, the special constable transporting him to jail from his dangerous offender hearing testified Friday.

With his hands in cuffs, the 36-year-old psychopath braced his back against the partition in the back seat and lifted his shackled feet up against the top of the window on July 18, 2013, Michael Bednarek testified.

Verdon shouted three times, “I’m going to kick out the f---ing window,” Bednarek recalled.

Bednarek had wanted to listen to the news, but with a long drive ahead from Ottawa to the Brockville jail, he decided to defuse the situation with dance music.

“I gave him his radio station,” he said.

Verdon has a long and violent criminal record, including punching a guard at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, head-stomping a bouncer and breaking into his then-girlfriend’s apartment and hitting her as she hid under a sheet. His most serious conviction — manslaughter — was for his role in the 1995 beating death of an Ottawa Citizen delivery man.

Verdon’s dangerous offender hearing began in May 2013, following a violent episode at his then-girlfriend’s apartment in Nov. 2011. Verdon repeatedly bashed the property manager’s head against a doorway, shouted death threats and followed the crying elderly landlady down the street.

A different ex-girlfriend took the stand Friday to detail Verdon’s controlling and abusive behaviour during the six months they lived together in Mississauga around 2006.

Verdon has not been convicted of any allegations involving her.

“He pulled my hair. He smacked me in the face. He would cuss names at me,” she said.

The 46-year-old woman described how Verdon once threw a square crystal ashtray at her after demanding she quit smoking. She showed the court a 1.5-centimetre scar on her right shin.

He also grabbed a burning cigarette out of her hand and put it out on her left arm, she said.

Crown prosecutor Mike Boyce asked if she ever hit Verdon.

“Sometimes I would, yes,” she said. “If he hit me in the face, I would hit him back.”

She also described how he once had sex with her after she said no.

“I didn’t want sex,” she said. “I just let him have his five minutes of fame.”

If he is declared a dangerous offender, Verdon will face an indeterminate sentence. The designation is meant to protect the public from violent offenders with a high risk of recidivism.