Woman called ‘brains’ behind murders
But defence lawyer says ex-wife of one of the victims only found out about deaths after the fact
Melissa Merritt was “calling the shots” in the murders of her exhusband and mother-in-law, a prosecutor said in his closing remarks in a trial happening more than a decade after Bridget and later Caleb Harrison were both found dead in the same Mississauga home.
Merritt’s already convicted common-law spouse, Christopher Fattore, did not act on his own and “must’ve had the help and encouragement of Melissa Merritt,” Crown attorney Eric Taylor said in his closing remarks to the jury this week.
In four weeks of evidence at the Brampton trial, the jury heard evidence from police wiretaps and video recordings that Taylor said show Merritt was “clearly the brains” in a plot motivated by a bitter and prolonged custody battle.
Those intercepted conversations show that Fattore told Merritt about the killings, and that he was willing to take the rap for them. The trial has also revealed how Merritt lied about Fattore’s whereabouts to assist him with his alibi following Caleb’s death. And all those factors combined show she was not just an accessory after the fact, Taylor said.
Bridget Harrison, 63, a former educator and school board superintendent, was found dead at the foot of the stairs of her Mississauga home on April 21, 2010. Her 40year-old son Caleb was found dead inside the house three years later on Aug. 23, 2013; it was only after his murder that his ex-wife and Fattore were considered suspects and Peel police investigators realized both had been strangled.
Merritt has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder; Fattore has previously been convicted and is serving a life sentence.
In his closing remarks on Friday, Merritt’s lawyer Joel Hechter said the prosecutor’s case against Merritt is based on circumstantial evidence. “If you find that Melissa Merritt was no more than an accessory after the fact,” he told the jury, “then she’s not guilty of the charges before you.”
He reminded the jury that Merritt is not on trial for finding out about the murders after the fact or helping Fattore escape justice. Although Fattore told Merritt about a murder he had committed — months after it had happened — that doesn’t make her an active participant or someone who aided or abetted the killings, he said.
“Not turning him in makes her an accessory after (the fact), not a murderer,” Hechter said.
The killings were “ridiculously reckless,” Hechter said, telling the jury that Fattore felt “untouchable after he got away with one murder, but his luck ran out when he committed a second.”
But, he said: “It’s clear Merritt doesn’t find out about all his stupid decisions for months and when she does, she calls them what they are: ‘boneheaded.’ ”
He added: “The killer is behind bars. Justice has been done.”
At trial, Hechter picked apart transcripts of the police wiretaps — records he said were designed to “make Melissa Merritt sound guilty.”
Over several days of cross-examination by Hechter, former Peel police officer Lawrence Lowe admitted that investigators made mistakes in their interpretation of what was said by both Merritt and Fattore in the recordings.
Merritt’s trial was focused on her relationship with the Harrisons. The jury has heard that both deaths came around key dates in the custody dispute over Merritt and Caleb Harrison’s two children; Merritt filed for sole custody of the children two weeks after Caleb’s murder.
The Crown noted that by the time Bridget was killed, she had been fighting Merritt for years in a feud that boiled over with her having Merritt arrested and eventually convicted for abducting the children in 2009. Later, when Caleb was serving time for an unrelated driving death conviction in 2009, the courts awarded Bridget his custody rights. This, Taylor said, must have filled Merritt with rage in the months leading up to Bridget’s death.
In a videotaped interview two weeks after Bridget was killed, Merritt didn’t hide her dislike for her former mother-in-law.
“I didn’t like the woman personally,” Merritt said.
Taylor also noted that with the evidence pointing to Caleb being killed late at night, Fattore needed Merritt to make it “look like he had an alibi, as she is the only one that can say he’s home with her.”
Three days after their arrest on Jan. 28, 2014, Fattore was surreptitiously recorded telling Merritt he had confessed to police and told them she “never told me to do it.”
“Don’t say anything,” Fattore urged her in the recordings.
“You shouldn’t have said anything,” Merritt replied, and is later heard telling Fattore the “audio tapes would’ve f-ked us anyway.”
The jury has heard how the police investigation went dormant in the years following Bridget’s death until, six days after Caleb was found dead, a Peel officer posing as a waste disposal worker picked up several bags of garbage left outside Merritt’s Brampton home.
Still, it wasn’t until October 2013 that forensic testing revealed that gloves recovered in those bags contained DNA matching both Fattore and Caleb Harrison. Next, Fattore’s DNA was found under Caleb’s fingernails.
By then, and with the Harrisons dead, Merritt had finally won full custody of the children and relocated with Fattore to Nova Scotia.
Bridget’s husband Bill Harrison, 64, earlier died in the same home in April 2009.
The trial continues.