CANADA: Three Indian-origin persons have been found guilty of first-degree murder by a court in Canada in connection with the killing of a couple in Abbotsford, according to local broadcaster CBC News.
Arnold and Joanne De Jong were found dead in their Abbotsford residence in May 2022.
Four years later, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown on Friday ruled that Gurkaran Singh, Abhijeet Singh and Khushveer Toor played a willing and integral role in the couple’s murder, the broadcaster reported.
The judge agreed with prosecutors that the murders were financially motivated and rejected defence arguments that the deaths resulted from a robbery that went wrong, the report said.
Prosecutors told the court the three men had jointly planned to rob and kill the couple, and they stole credit cards, cheques and a power washer from the house.
The three men worked together for a cleaning company owned by Abhijeet Singh, which had previously carried out work at the De Jongs’ home.
The accused, all in their 20s, had pleaded not guilty to two counts each of first-degree murder at the start of the trial.
The couple were found dead in separate bedrooms, with Arnold’s head and face wrapped in duct tape while Joanne was found with blood around her. Their hands and feet were bound with rope.
CBC News said prosecutors presented circumstantial evidence linking all three accused to the killings, including DNA recovered from the crime scene, rope allegedly used to tie up Arnold De Jong and a metal baseball bat recovered from the suspects’ vehicle.
Prosecutors also cited phone data evidence showing Abhijeet Singh carried out internet searches after reading news reports about the killings, including searches related to how murderers are punished in Canada, the report said.
Sentencing for the three is scheduled for May 28.