Killer headed back to jail
Panel upholds parole revocation of teen’s murderer
The appeal division of the Parole Board of Canada has upheld a decision to revoke the day parole of a man who has spent more than 30 years behind bars for the rape and murder of a Niagara teenager.
Following a parole board hearing in the fall of 2023, Elio Caputo had his parole revoked due to, among other things, interactions with several women.
The former St. Catharines resident, convicted of second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Cara Taylor, appealed the decision.
The board’s appeal division reviewed the matter and in a decision released this week ruled the board did not breach principles of fundamental justice and affirmed the original decision.
The two-member appeal panel concluded the parole board conducted a fair risk assessment and arrived at a decision that was reasonable and consistent with the principles of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, which requires the board to take into consideration many factors, including the nature and gravity of the offence, the degree of responsibility of the offender and the victims.
Taylor was 17 when she was raped and murdered by Caputo, then 18, in February 1993 in her family’s St. Catharines home.
He was sentenced to life in prison with no parole before 18 years.
Caputo was granted release to a halfway house in Toronto in November 2022, but was returned to custody three months later after his case management team learned he had failed to notify his parole officer he had recently ended a relationship with a woman.
One of the conditions of his release was that he notify his parole
officer of any sexual and nonsexual relationships and friendships with women, and to immediately report any changes in those relationships.
At his hearing, Caputo said he didn’t report the relationship and subsequent breakup because he was embarrassed and felt he would be judged by his parole officer.
Authorities also discovered the convicted killer had repeatedly reached out to a former girlfriend he had dated prior to Taylor.
Asked why he contacted the woman, whom he had not seen in more than 30 years, Caputo claimed he had received a call from someone he did not know who encouraged him to reach out “as part your spiritual journey to apologize for your emotional hurt.”
He sent several unanswered messages and, on the one occasion he spoke with the woman, she told him she wasn’t comfortable communicating with him.
In his appeal, Caputo said the parole board had indicated he “relentlessly contacted” an exgirlfriend, despite her pleas to stop.
He disputed the board’s characterization of events.
The appeal panel dismissed his submissions and noted the board’s determinative factor in its decision was not only due to unwanted and ongoing communication with an ex-partner, but also with his deception with his case management team relating to the dissolution of the relationship.
“During the hearing, you also explained that you were apprehensive of telling your (case management team) about the end of your relationship because of your feelings of embarrassment and shame associated with the end of your relationship,” the decision stated.
“The appeal division finds that your comments within this context not only speak to your ability, or lack thereof, to draw on your supports to help you navigate risky situations, but also to your lack of transparency with your (case management team) about risk-relevant behaviour.
“Given the brutal nature of the index offence against your former girlfriend following a breakup, it was reasonable that the board found your lack of transparency around this highrisk situation serious.”
The panel also concluded that making unwanted calls to expartners in the face of years of programming and counselling around healthy relationships was “risk relevant.”