The similarities between two killings of Calgary sex trade workers nearly 14 years apart are unlikely to be a coincidence, a judge ruled Wednesday. Read More
Noteworthy legal cases in Calgary and area from April 7-11, 2025
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Noteworthy legal cases in Calgary and area from April 7-11, 2025
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- No signs murder suspect Michael Adenyi was suffering delusions or hallucinations, arresting officer tells court
- Calgary senior fined for unsafe turn resulting in the death of an elderly woman
- Driver who killed Okotoks woman and her adult son spared jail term
- Fatal stabbing victim Vanessa Ladouceur had wounds suggesting she tried to fend off her attacker, court hears
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The similarities between two killings of Calgary sex trade workers nearly 14 years apart are unlikely to be a coincidence, a judge ruled Wednesday.
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Justice Colin Feasby said Crown prosecutors Hyatt Mograbee and Greg Piper can call evidence of the 2009 homicide of Laura Ferlan in a bid to prove Christopher Ward Dunlop is guilty of murder in a Feb. 16, 2023, fatal stabbing.
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Dunlop, 50, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of sex-trade worker Judy Maerz, 58.
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Defence lawyer Allan Fay had argued the evidence of Furlan’s homicide had sufficient differences so as to not be strikingly similar to the killing of Maerz.
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But Feasby agreed with the prosecution the differences, which included the fact Furlan was strangled and Maerz was stabbed to death, weren’t significant.
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“I am not persuaded that the dissimilarities make it unlikely that the same person committed the two acts,” the Calgary Court of King’s Bench judge said.
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“Though a different mode of killing was deployed in each incident, both killings were violent and seemingly occurred during or proximate to a sex act.”
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Feasby noted there were multiple similarities between the killing of Furlan in August 2009, and Maerz’s slaying two years ago, including that they both occurred in Deerfoot Athletic Park off 8th Avenue N.E.
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Both victims also worked in the street sex trade, both killings occurred around 3 a.m., and both appeared to have occurred during sex, with Dunlop admitting he choked Furlan during intercourse and Maerz was found naked with her pants around her ankles, he said.
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Dunlop’s DNA was also found at both scenes, Maerz’s body was burned and Dunlop admitted that he intended to burn Furlan’s body, and the accused operated different orange pick-up trucks at the time of both homicides, Feasby said.
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The judge also said the evidence of Furlan’s killing could be used to show intent in the Maerz slaying, particularly as it relates to animus towards sex-trade workers.
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“Mr. Dunlop admitted telling undercover officers (in the Furlan case) that he was angry and looking for someone ‘who would not be missed’ and someone who he could f— up,’” Feasby said.
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“The Crown says that these statements, together with Mr. Dunlop’s conduct surrounding the killing of Ms. Furlan, indicate the knowledge of the vulnerability of street sex workers and an animus toward street sex workers.”
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Feasby said the fact the two crimes occurred more than a decade apart would usually weigh against the admission of the similar fact evidence, but not in this instant.
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“The passage of time in the present case is not as great as it first seems because the person known to have committed the first act, Mr. Dunlop, was in prison from 2012 to 2020,” the judge said.
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Dunlop pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Furlan’s death.
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Dunlop’s trial before Feasby without a jury is scheduled for June.
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Murder suspect Michael Adenyi showed no signs of delusions, or hallucinations when taken into police custody, his arresting officer said Tuesday.
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Const. Benjamin Stock was led through a series of video clips by Crown prosecutor Renato Di Lorenzo showing Adenyi being brought to the Westwinds Calgary police headquarters shortly after the March 18, 2022, killing of Vanessa Ladouceur.
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The footage, taken with Stock’s body worn camera and surveillance cameras at the police station, show Adenyi entering the building and being escorted down a hall before being taken by elevator to the second floor.
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Adenyi, wearing a hospital gown and with several fingers bandaged, showed no indication he was uncomfortable as he was led to a telephone room and left for 20 minutes and then taken to a police interview room.
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Before being taken to those rooms Stock did a secondary pat down of the accused.
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At one point the officer offered Adenyi a second chance to contact a lawyer, Stock said.
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On the video Adenyi, wearing a mask over his mouth, made an inaudible response.
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“It was hard for me to hear, but I believe he said ‘no,’” Stock told Di Lorenzo.
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“I advised him that he can call a free lawyer. Sometimes people don’t know if they have to pay for it, or what the process is.”
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“Did he seem to understand where he was?” the prosecutor asked.
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“He did,” Stock said.
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The officer ultimately brought the accused some food and a jacket, after Adenyi indicated he was cold, before placing him in an interview room for detectives to speak to him.
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“He asked about turning up the heat in the room because he was cold and I didn’t know if there was a way of turning up the heat or not,” Stock said about bringing Adenyi the jacket.
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During the interaction Adenyi was able to indicate what he wanted from McDonald’s for lunch.
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“Did he appear to be interacting with things that weren’t there?” Di Lorenzo asked.
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“He did not,” Stock said.
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“Did he appear to be seeing things that were not there?” the prosecutor continued.
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“He did not.”
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“Was he able to respond appropriately?”
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“He was.”
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Adenyi is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ladouceur, who was repeatedly stabbed in the city’s Beltline district while on her way to work.
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It’s expected defence lawyers Kim Ross and Curtis Mennie will argue the accused was not criminally responsible by reason of a mental disorder.
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Calgary senior fined $1,000 for unsafe left turn which resulted in the death of an elderly city woman
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Making an unsafe left turn which resulted in a fatal collision has landed a retired Calgary accountant a $1,000 fine.
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Samuel Leung also had his driver’s licence suspended for 30 days after pleading guilty to breaching a regulation under the provincial Traffic Safety Act.
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In accepting a joint submission from Crown prosecutor Sabrine Koudmani and defence counsel Ian Savage on the fine, Justice John Bascom noted he was required to look at the bad driving, not the tragic result, in determining a suitable punishment.
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The family of Elfrieda Osipow were also satisfied that Leung’s conduct two years ago didn’t warrant a significant punishment.
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“We forgive you,” Osipow’s granddaughter, April Wrenn, said in court while reading victim impact statements on behalf of herself and her dad, Peter Osipow.
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“We understand … that you didn’t intend for any of this to happen.”
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Elfrieda Osipow, 91, suffered two fractures to her lower left leg, a fracture to her upper right arm and multiple rib fractures in the March 31, 2023, collision at Aero Drive and Aero Gate N.E.
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“Elfrieda succumbed to her injuries and died in hospital four days later,” Koudmani told Bascom.
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Reading from a statement of agreed facts, Koudmani said Leung, then 64, had stopped briefly at the intersection before turning his Lexus SUV left into the path of Peter Osipow’s oncoming Chevrolet Spark hatchback.
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“Mr. Leung came to a stop prior to completing the left-hand turn onto Aero Gate,” Koudmani said.
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“He stated in his traffic collision report that he had difficulty seeing because the sun was in his eyes.”
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She said a traffic reconstruction expert determined that neither speed, nor impairment were factors in the collision.
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Koudmani also told Bascom that Leung had no criminal record and no history of driving offences.
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While the Crown and defence agreed on the fine they proposed different periods of time for the suspension of Leung’s driving privileges.
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Savage sought a minimal prohibition of 15 days, noting Leung is the primary driver for his wife, while Koudmani sought a 90-day prohibition.
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Before Bascom sentenced him Leung addressed the court.
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“Please accept my sincere apologies for the harm that has been done by this collision and the loss of your loved one,” he told the victim’s survivors.
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Bascom accepted Savage’s submission his client had no intention of causing a crash.
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“This is one of those tragedies that could happen to anyone,” the judge said, adding the fact the sun interfered with Leung’s sight is “something that happens daily to individuals driving in the city.”
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Driver who killed Okotoks woman and her adult son spared jail term
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Okotoks widower Glenn Burke had hoped to see the driver responsible for the deaths of his wife and adult son spend some time behind bars for her crime.
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At the very least, Burke said Monday, he wanted to hear an apology from the woman whose dangerous driving took the lives of his loved ones.
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In Calgary Court of King’s Bench, Burke got neither.
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Justice Nancy Dilts accepted a joint submission from defence counsel Pat Fagan and Crown prosecutor Indayat Balogun to hand Charizma Hunter Homer a two-year-less-a-day conditional sentence over the April 27, 2022, deaths of Kathy and Christopher Burke.
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“I’m totally disappointed, of course,” Glenn Burke said, shortly after Dilts ordered Homer, 26, to spend a year under house arrest and 12 more months on a nightly curfew.
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“She just does not care. She killed two people and she doesn’t care.”
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Burke said while he knew the prosecution wouldn’t be seeking jail for Homer, he still had hoped for a different outcome.
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“It’s sad. Everybody I talked to said the same thing, our legal system, it doesn’t do anything to address the criminal. They get off so easy.”
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Homer had faced four charges, two each of impaired driving causing death and two of dangerous driving causing the deaths of the two victims.
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But Fagan told Dilts that Balogun and co-prosecutor Patrick Bigg had already conceded there wasn’t evidence to support the contention Homer was impaired by drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash, on Highway 7, just southwest of Okotoks.
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According to a statement of agreed facts, Homer was westbound on the two-lane highway when at high speed she attempted to pass a car in her lane.
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Christopher Burke, who was heading eastbound in a Honda Civic, could not avoid the head-on collision with Homer’s oncoming Cadillac Escalade.
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An RCMP accident expert collected crash data from both vehicles, Balogun said.
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“Prior to the collision (the Escalade) had been travelling upwards of 148 km/h, whereas (the Civic) was travelling 99 km/h,” the prosecutor told Dilts.
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The posted speed limit on the roadway is 100 km/h.
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“Multiple witnesses at the scene described the accused’s driving pattern as reckless and that when the pass was initiated, there was no way that she would have been able to complete the pass safely.”
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Dilts also heard victim impact statements from Glenn Burke, his surviving son, Matthew, and the dead woman’s sister, Lola Pascale.
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Pascale said the tragedy seems “like some cruel joke that we’re all going to wake up from.”
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Fagan told Dilts his client has also suffered psychologically from the crash with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
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Along with the conditional sentence Homer, who now lives in Fox Creek, northwest of Edmonton, is prohibited from driving for three years.
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Fatal stabbing victim Vanessa Ladouceur had wounds suggesting she tried to fend off her attacker, court hears
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Among the stab wounds suffered by Calgary homicide victim Vanessa Ladouceur were injuries suggesting she tried to fend off her attacker, a pathologist testified Monday.
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Dr. Akmal Coetzee-Khan testified Ladouceur suffered at least eight stab wounds, including two wounds to her left hand that could have been caused by a single, or two separate stabbing motions.
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“There’s a perforated stab wound to the left hand with associated fracture injuries to the carpal bones and an associated stab wound injury to the left thumb which could be an extension of the perforated stab wound,” Coetzee-Khan told Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail.
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The medical examiner said the majority of the injuries suffered by Ladouceur when she was attacked on her way to work the morning of March 18, 2022, were to her head area.
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“There were multiple sharp force trauma (wounds),” Coetzee-Khan said.
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“The sharp force trauma included six stab wounds to the face, head, neck region.”
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Charged with first-degree murder in Ladouceur’s death is Calgarian Michael Adenyi.
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It’s expected defence lawyer Kim Ross will argue his client was not criminally responsible by reason of a medical disorder at the time of the victim’s death.
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Coetzee-Khan testified the multiple wounds would have caused bleeding from several areas of Ladouceur’s body.
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He said the 31-year-old was also stabbed in the left shoulder, a perforating wound that exited her back.
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“There’s blood loss that’s occurring from multiple sites,” Coetzee-Khan said.
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“The cause of death was determined to be multiple sharp force trauma injuries and the manner of death was determined to be homicide.”
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The pathologist said the hand wounds weren’t surprising considering most of the injuries suffered by Ladouceur were to her head area.
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“They might not be, but they could be considered defensive injuries, especially with injuries that are located towards the face. A reaction usually from a person having injuries towards their face would be to protect their face and they could have stab wounds that could injure the hand,” he said.
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“That could be considered defensive injuries.”
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Last week jurors viewed extensive CCTV footage tracking both Ladouceur and Adenyi in the moments leading up to the attack.
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“The video shows Ladouceur leaving her residence at around 6:27 a.m. and heading eastbound on 10th Avenue S.E.
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Minutes later, Adenyi is seen exiting an apartment building at 10th Avenue and 1st Street S.W., pushing a bicycle, wearing a light-coloured jacket and carrying a backpack.
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The trial is scheduled to last four weeks.
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