Crown, defence argue over admissibility of key video interview in Cory Fenn triple murder trial

The Crown and the defence in the triple murder trial of Cory Fenn spent much of Friday in an Oshawa courtroom arguing whether a three-hour video interview between the accused and Durham police should be admitted into evidence.

Fenn, charged with three counts of second-degree murder, admitted in the video to killing Krassimira Pejcinovski, 39, as well as her 15-year-old son Roy and 13-year-old daughter Venallia in 2018, the judge-only trial heard this week.  

But he has pleaded not guilty to all three charges. In the video interview, he says he was in the midst of "cocaine psychosis" when the killings happened.

The interview, which a Durham Regional Police detective conducted with Fenn at a police station the day after the three bodies were found in an Ajax home, has been the subject of what's known as a voir dire — a hearing to decide whether a piece of evidence can be heard as part of a trial.

The defence wants the video thrown out because it says Fenn's statement was coerced. The Crown denies that and wants it admitted to the trial, which is being conducted by Superior Court Justice Howard Leibovich.

In the video, which was played during the voir dire Wednesday and Thursday, Fenn tells Det. Mark Pillman he had been on a five-day cocaine binge at the time of the homicides.

The three victims were found by police in Pejcinovski's home on Hilling Drive in Ajax on March 14, 2018. Autopsy results revealed two of the victims had been stabbed to death and one died by strangulation.