Jury set to decide if Mississauga man killed housemate
A Brampton jury has heard compelling evidence that a Mississauga man covered up the December 2017 murder of his housemate, now they’re on the verge of deciding if he stabbed her to death.
The Crown claims Shaofeng Han, 55, killed Yunying Pan, 40, and buried her body because he was annoyed by her being noisy and rejecting his advances, while the defence argues Han covered up the homicide scene he found inside the Mississauga townhouse out of fear of being wrongfully accused.
Within two weeks of Han meeting Pan “he was burying her in a shallow grave,” said Crown prosecutor David D’Iorio in his closing submissions to the jury Tuesday. “He did that hoping that her body would never be found and that the truth about her murder would never be known.”
D’Iorio said rather than calling an ambulance, Han took every step to cover up Pan’s murder and tried to manufacture evidence that she had left the house, then lied to the police when she was reported missing by her mother a few days after she was last seen alive on Dec. 5, 2017.
It almost worked, D’Iorio said, but surveillance footage at the Strathaven Drive townhouse complex captured Han moving Pan’s Lexus SUV to a nearby Mississauga mall.
Han labelled Pan as a “disobedient women,” to police, D’Iorio argued, painting Han as a serial liar who denied any involvement until he testified a week ago.
The prosecutor homed in on a frustrated Han repeatedly complaining to the landlord between Nov. 25 and 27, 2017, about Pan being noisy and leaving the lights on. Han at one point warned “there were going to be bigger conflicts later on,” and said “this girl is too much,” D’Iorio told the jury.
Days later, Pan declined Han’s offer to take her to the gym. She mentioned this to her cousin via social media and called Han “old and dirty,” D’Iorio said.
Pan expressed concern for her safety to the landlord, and mentioned looking for another place to live, D’Iorio said.
Han was not charged with seconddegree murder until Jan. 26, 2018, weeks after Pan’s disappearance prompted police to carry out surveillance on Han’s daily routine, the jury has heard.
Pan’s body was found in March 2019 in a wooded area near Matheson Boulevard East and Kennedy Road in Mississauga.
“Most of her skin and vital organs had rotted away in the grave, permanently erasing the evidence of what was done to her and who had done it,” D’Iorio said, adding she was stabbed repeatedly in the middle of her back.
Han’s defence lawyer Lydia Riva told the jury in her closing address that given the “lack of a motive and the fact that an unknown man’s blood was at the scene, you must have a reasonable doubt that Mr. Han was responsible for Ms. Pan’s murder.”
Riva said Han, a reclusive Chinese immigrant who immigrated to Canada in 2006 and spoke no English, became unhinged by his discovery of Pan’s bloodied body.
Pan had moved into the townhouse as a tenant just 10 days prior to Han discovering her lifeless body on the stairs, Riva said, adding that Han was the only other person at home as the other male tenant was away in China.
Riva said Han believed that, like China, Canada had the death penalty.
“He thought of wrongful convictions in China,” she said. “Shaofeng believed that if police suspected him he would be automatically convicted and executed.”
The murder weapon and Pan’s mobile phone was never found. Han told police he found the back door open wide.
Han testified to complaining to the landlord about Pan making noise, but said things got better. Han also admitted to jokingly suggesting to Pan that he wanted to be her boyfriend.
“If Mr. Han was so obsessed with Ms. Pan, how was he able to control himself and not call or message her with any frequency,” Riva said.
D’Iorio will conclude his closing submissions Wednesday after which Superior Court Justice Kofi Barnes will instruct the jury on how to apply the law to the case.