Man killed in jail depended on facility’s staff to keep him alive and safe, Crown tells jury
Two charged with failing to provide necessities of life
Sometime in the quiet hours after Anthony George beat Adam Kargus to death in London’s provincial jail, a neighbouring inmate held a sign to his cell window, a jury heard Tuesday.
Call 911, the sign said.
But neither that message — an earlier warning about the intimidating and aggressive George being drunk — nor the screams of the assault, so loud they could be heard a floor below, could save Kargus, Crown Attorney Fraser Kelly said at the start of an unusual trial in London.
“Members of the jury, a man died in jail,” Kelly said. “He was fully dependent on the jail staff to ensure his safety.”
That is a key argument the Crown plans to make during the next four weeks in the trial of two former Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC) staff charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life. Former operations manager Stephen Jurkus and former correctional officer Leslie Lonsbary both have pleaded not guilty to the charges, believed to be the first in Ontario laid against jail staff. Kelly used his opening Tuesday to run through the agreed facts in the case, which included a detailed list of injuries that forced Kargus’s mother, Deb Abrams, to leave the courtroom in tears. George was in custody on Oct. 31, 2013 due to outstanding assault charges. Kargus was serving a 90-day sentence for fraud, the jury heard.
The two men shared Cell 3 in Unit 6 Left the night George beat Kargus to death.
The extensive list of injuries in Kargus’s autopsy report included almost every back rib broken, most facial bones broken, surface bruises from head to toe, deep muscle bruising throughout the body, 32 visible wounds to the face and head, three teeth knocked out and extensive brain trauma.
The cause of death was ruled multiple blunt force trauma to the head, face, neck and torso. Each of the injuries to the head, face and neck alone would have killed Kargus, the report said.
At 8:13 the next morning, Nov. 1, 2013, the cell doors unlocked but correctional officers were off the range. Kargus’s body was dragged into the showers. It was discovered at 9:50 a.m.
Kelly told the jury they will hear evidence that the evening of Oct. 31, a nurse and a correctional officer noticed George and his cell smelled like “brew.” Brew is the name given to alcohol inmates make from fermented fruit and sugar in their cells.
The nurse will testify she thought the cell smelled like a still and she refused to give George his medication, the jury heard.
Kelly told the jury they will hear evidence that Lonsbary did not do checks every 30 minutes as he was supposed to that evening, with no checks during one 90-minute period.
Kelly began introducing video surveillance from EMDC and is expected to continue when the trial resumes Wednesday.