Two tradesmen were sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder in the Oct. 1. 2007 slaying of a Filipino maid in a Mississauga mansion.
Cristian Figueroa, 37, and Fabian Loayza-Penaloza, 40, showed no emotion when the jury foreman read the verdict on Friday just after noon in a Brampton courtroom.
Jocelyn Dulnuan, 27, was strangled with a thin braided copper wire that was wrapped twice around her neck and tied tightly with a knot at her throat. Her left hand was also bound with the same wire. Her feet were bound with the arms of her sweater.
The nine men and two women deliberated for about six hours over two days. Justice John R. Sproat told jurors the verdict was “very well justified” based on the evidence presented during the month-long trial.
He also praised the Crown and defence for their efforts, telling defence lawyers they did as best as they could consider the “hand they were dealt.” In reaching their verdict, jurors must have believed the two men each participated in the forcible confinement of Dulnuan and her death regardless of whom actually strangled her.
Both men, born in Ecudaor, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
They each testified and blamed the other as the lone killer of the live-in maid. They admitted they went to the 30,000square-foot mansion that day to commit a burglary. They each insisted they never harmed the married mother of a young daughter.
Sproat also praised Peel homicide investigators for leaving “no stone unturned” during their investigation. “They were resolute in going to find the killers and they did,” Sproat said. Neither of the convicted men said anything once the verdict was delivered. Jurors knew they didn’t have to decide who actually strangled Dulnuan in order to convict one or both men of the brutal slaying.
To convict one or both of the men of first-degree murder, jurors only needed to be certain beyond a reasonable doubt that one murdered her while she was forcibly confined or one killed her and the other assisted him in the slaying.
Verdicts of second-degree murder and manslaughter were also available to the jury, which consisted of only 11 people. A 12th juror was excused on the opening day of the trial. They had a potential of eight different verdicts, including acquitting both men of all criminal responsibility.
Crown prosecutors Steve Sherriff and Carrie Stoddard said the tradesmen, together, forcibly confined Dulnuan and strangled her in the basement kitchen of the mansion, attacking her by surprise while she was cooking chicken wings on the stove. It was the Crown’s case that she needed to be silenced before her screams alerted other workers in the massive south Mississauga residence that a burglary was under way.
Defence lawyers Robert Tomovski and Paul Mergler said the murder and forcible confinement was committed by only one man.
Figueroa’s DNA was found under the fingernails of both of Dulnuan’s hands. He testified she grabbed his neck in desperation when he suddenly found Loayza-Penaloza strangling her from behind. He tried to save her but was unsuccessful.
Loayza-Penaloza, a long-time trusted painter at the mansion, maintained he took Figueroa there to case the place for a future break-in. But Figueroa removed a small safe from a closet in the master bedroom and told him he left the maid tied up in her bedroom. Loayza-Penaloza insisted he never knew she was dead until about a week and half later, when Figueroa confessed to him he had killed her.
The maid’s slaying was one of Greater Toronto’s highest-profiled cases of the year and was covered by every television station and newspaper. Dulnuan was killed very late in the robbery. She was alive at 2:53 p.m. but dead by the time the men drove away from the home at 3:04 p.m.
Jurors were told Loayza-Penaloza had the motive to kill because Dulnuan recognized him. Figueroa had the motive to kill because he was already on bail for a break-in and the maid might pick him out of a photo lineup.
A home owner found Dulnuan dead and lying on her back on her bedroom floor behind a closed door when she arrived home after work at 5 p.m.
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