Source: Toronto Star and Xtra
The long-time lover of popular Toronto gay bar owner Janko Naglic has been acquitted of his first-degree murder by a jury that deliberated for around four hours.
The jury returned with its not guilty verdict around 10:15 p.m. Tuesday following a three-week trial that heard from an array of witnesses who testified about the deteriorating relationship between the accused, Ivan Mendez-Romero, and Naglic.
"It was a strange trial where hearsay evidence was produced as real evidence," defence lawyer Laurence Cohen told the jury in his summation on Mar 3 in the murder trial of Ivan Mendez-Romero.
Mendez-Romero, 38, was charged in connection with the death of his lover, Janko Naglic. Naglic, the original owner of the Barn, was found dead in his home on Oct 26, 2004.
The trial featured many soap-opera elements, including a bizarre love triangle. Mendez-Romero, 39, had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
He and Naglic lived happily as lovers at 585 Balliol St., the scene of the murder, for more than a decade after Mendez-Romero moved here from Cuba. But the relationship faltered badly after Mendez-Romero married a woman, devastating the flamboyant owner of the The Barn and the Stables on Church St.
Speaking from a podium set up in front of the Crown's desk facing the jury, Cohen told the court that it wasn't up to the defence to solve the crime. "The burden of proof always rests with the Crown and they had to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt."
Cohen compared the testimony by Naglic's friends and associates to "coffee shop conversation or after-dinner chatter."
"All the evidence in this case comes from Janko Naglic but is given by others to you," he told the jury. "This is at the lower end of the totem pole of evidence."
Cohen argued that the Crown hadn't adequately proven that conversations between Naglic and the many witnesses "actually occurred" and that, while most of the witnesses "were good people," the jury had to first believe that all the conversations described really happened, that they had been "properly recalled" and that Naglic had been telling the truth when relating the stories to the witnesses in the first place.
"The prosecutors," Cohen said, "failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt [Mendez-Romero's guilt]. In fact, the evidence in this trial is more consistent with innocence than guilt. If you think that Mendez-Romero is probably guilty, then you have to acquit."
On Tuesday night after the verdict, Cohen said he was "relieved," adding he'd never seen a jury in a murder trial return with a verdict so quickly. The jury retired around 4 p.m. Tuesday after Justice Gladys Pardu finished her nearly all-day charge.
"We did our best for Janko but ultimately we put it into the hands of the jury and we have to respect their decision," Homicide Det. Sgt. Wayne Banks, the lead investigator on the case, said late Tuesday night.
During her summation senior Crown attorney Ann Morgan told the jury that Mendez-Romero killed Naglic over money. She called the life the couple led "the vida loca," pointing to the $750,000 house on Balliol St, the condos in Florida, the yacht, Mercedes and a $56,000 truck.
"We have to be careful here," said Morgan. "Just because someone likes the good life and may be prepared to do anything for it -- even use someone -- doesn't make a murderer."
Morgan pointed to testimony of Mendez-Romero's affairs with women throughout the course of his relationship with Naglic.
"We've heard evidence that Mr Mendez-Romero seemed to like women a lot and this caused Mr Naglic pain. We've heard evidence that Mr Naglic maybe even forgave him and that there might have been good times. And again be very careful because just because someone is not faithful or does not treat their partner well does not make them a murderer either.
"Any one of these facts in isolation doesn't make a case. But her honour [Justice Gladys Pardu] will tell you that in a circumstantial case you have to look at all the evidence as a whole and that is the constellations of facts that lead you to the conclusion."
Morgan conceded that there was no direct evidence to implicate Mendez-Romero. "This is a circumstantial case with a great deal of evidence, including overwhelming evidence of motive."
Mendez-Romero met Naglic on the Caribbean island in the early 1990s. He is now a Canadian citizen and has been at the Toronto (Don) Jail since his arrest in the summer of 2005. He is now a free man.
In his closing summation, Cohen argued that the Crown had not proved that the crime could not have been committed by strangers, adding that the back door was found open and that there was no proof that nothing had been taken, only that not everything had been taken.
"How can anyone know how much cash there was in the house?" asked Cohen, adding that Naglic's accountant Tom Ricketts had testified that Naglic skimmed hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from the Barn.
Cohen derided the Crown's assertion that, after murdering his lover, Mendez-Romero "cooly went out for drinks with his wife, had cognac at the Barn."
A neighbour called as a Crown witness testified last week that Mendez-Romero was distraught was babbling and seemed horrified at finding him dead in their home.
"He was really, really upset," said long-time neighbour, Phyllis Lamb. "He was crying."
Ivan Mendez-Romero, 39, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the asphyxiation death of Naglic, who was found face down by firefighters, his mouth and nose bound by duct tape, near the entrance of his home in the Mount Pleasant-Eglinton Aves. area.
Mendez-Romero was "babbling in Spanish" when he knocked on her door at 12:05 a.m. on Oct. 27, 2004, Lamb told Superior Court. Later, when she saw Mendez-Romero in a police car, he seemed physically ill, Lamb said.
Cohen argued that Mendez-Romero knew that "Naglic told everyone his dirty laundry" because Naglic was a "flamboyant extrovert" who told "everyone everything," whereas Mendez-Romero was an introvert who "kept it all to himself." He added that the testimony of Naglic's friends had presented only one side of the relationship.
In her charge to the jury, Pardu summarized the evidence based almost entirely on the testimony of Crown witnesses, since the defence called no evidence.
Pardu, however, cautioned jurors that the defence did not have to present evidence "or prove anything else in this case, in particular, that he is innocent of the crime charged."
Evidence was also tendered during the trial about threats made by Mendez-Romero and the Crown said money was a motive. The defence argued most of the testimony was "hearsay" and came from witnesses who were all part of Naglic's "inner circle."
After the judge dismissed the jury, Cohen expressed concern that her charge was one-sided and didn't include enough cautions about the reliability of witness statements. In order to help "balance" things, he asked her to recall the jury to highlight some of the defence's arguments, including his position that it was "physically impossible for one person to commit this murder."
Pardu agreed to recall the jury and reiterated that theory to them. As well, she explained to the jury that while there was some "mention" of a one-million-dollar insurance policy during the trial, "there is no such evidence of such a policy" when Naglic died.
Pardu also reminded jurors, at Cohen's behest, about the evidence they heard about Naglic's wills, which he changed over the years. At the time of his death, Mendez-Romero was entitled to the proceeds of a registered retirement savings plan amounting to about $60,000 and a $25,000 group life insurance policy. The will also left him with a Mercedes car in Florida worth about $25,000.
In order to find him guilty of first-degree murder, she said, Crown counsel must have proved that Mendez-Romero caused Naglic's death and did so unlawfully, that he had a "state of mind" required for murder and did something that was an "essential, substantial and integral part," of the killing.
Full article: TheStar.com | GTA | Lover acquitted of murdering gay bar owner
CRIME / The defence refutes the case against Mendez-Romero | Xtra.ca
'Vida loca' led to death | Xtra.ca