Victim beaten beyond recognition
Experts walk jury at Dalibor Klaric’s first-degree murder trial through blood patterns, autopsy and cause of death
Her face was pummelled so hard, so many times, it is impossible to discern if she is the same woman pictured on the driver’s licence found at the homicide scene.
On the Ontario licence photo, the woman is Asian, with an oval face, wide-set eyes and high cheek bones. Her name appears as Jiaming Zhang.
On the autopsy table at the Hamilton General Hospital morgue, there is what once was a face. It is bloody and swollen and cut and broken and bruised.
This is what Jiali Zhang looked like after Dalibor Klaric ordered an escort to his Stoney Creek apartment on Nov. 12, 2013. After he beat the five-foot-three, 112pound, 40-year-old woman to death with his bare hands.
Jurors gasped when the first of the autopsy photos appeared on courtroom screens Thursday, even after the warning from Justice Harrison Arrell: “Ladies and gentlemen, you’re going to see some graphic pictures. There’s nothing much we can do about that.”
Indeed, this is how a first-degree murder trial works.
Klaric wanted to plead guilty to manslaughter. He has confessed to killing Jiali. He called 911 and reported he killed her with his fists. He said he “just smashed her” after being turned down for some financial aid from Veterans Affairs earlier that day. He had briefly been a soldier but was discharged after suffering a hernia.
Crown attorney Todd Norman rejected the killer’s plea, opting to carry on with the trial instead.
Norman’s position is that Klaric called for a sex worker because he wanted to beat a woman. And the Crown alleges that Klaric sexually assaulted Jiali.
A homicide combined with sexual assault is automatically considered firstdegree murder.
The seven women and five men of the jury spent their day looking first at police photos of the bloody bedroom where Jiali’s naked body was found. Retired Hamilton police Sgt. Scott Collings, a bloodpattern analysis expert, painstakingly went through each of the many blood marks on the walls and ceiling and, especially, the headboard.
“There was a lot going on on that surface,” he said.
Next, retired forensic pathologist Dr. Chitra Rao was called to the stand. She is an expert witness, having done 375 homicide cases.
She provided the clinical details of Jiali’s injuries as photo after photo was shown. One juror wept.
Some images showed Jiali after the blood was wiped away.
“There were massive injuries to her face,” Rao said. “She sustained multiple blows.”
Her nose was broken so badly there was a large open wound with bone visible. Both eyes were blackened and swollen shut. Most of her face was deep purple with bruising and swelling. Her jaw was fractured and dislocated. Her lips, cut and swollen. There was a small, superficial cut on her jaw. Rao said it was from a sharp weapon.
Jiali’s whole body was bruised. Most of her ribs were broken. Some, in several places. Next to her face, the most shocking distortions were to her forearms and hands. They were swollen and purple and almost unrecognizable as human.
Rao said those injuries were suffered
when Jiali tried to cover her face as it was beaten.
Toxicology tests showed small amounts of alcohol and methamphetamine in Jiali’s body. Rao said neither substance killed her.
Jiali’s cause of death was “multiple blunt force injuries due to an assault,” Rao testified. She broke that down further. Any one of four particular events — or any combination of them — could have caused Jiali’s death.
First, the punches to her face were so hard, they caused damage to her brain. That would have impaired her ability to regulate her own breathing.
Second, with so much blood in her nose and mouth, she may have suffocated.
Third, the blood trickling into her throat and lungs may have choked her.
Fourth, her shattered rib cage may have prevented her from drawing breath.
Rao said Jiali suffered tremendous pain. She died no more than 20 minutes after the beating began.
While there were a few minor cuts to her body (a knife was in the bedroom), Jiali was punched to death.
Sometimes, Klaric leaned forward in the prisoner’s box as though to better view the photos. Once, he hunched forward, covering his face briefly with his hands.