'Mommy's not waking up': Court sees texts in murder trial when child finds mother's body
CBC
Text messages became public Tuesday in a Windsor murder trial that show how the victim's nine-year-old son reached out to his father when he found his mother lifeless in her bed.
It was the second day of the first-degree murder trial of Jitesh Bhogal. On June 10, 2018 Autumn Taggart's body was found in her third-floor apartment in the city's west end.
Chris Sherwin, Taggart's former partner and father of their son, testified that he last heard from her via text message around 12:30 a.m. on June 10. When he woke up in the morning, he texted again but didn't receive a response. At that point, he said he was worried, the court heard.
It wasn't until later that day that he said he received a text from Taggart's phone. He quickly realized it was his son. A copy of the text messages was displayed in court for the jury to see.
"Mommy's not waking up," the son texted.
"Ok buddy daddy is coming," Sherwin replied via text message. "Hold on to the phone please."
He arrived to find his son visible from the 3rd floor balcony living room, behind the glass sliding door, he testified. Sherwin said his son came downstairs to let him in. He went up to the apartment, and told his son to wait with his fiancée outside.
When he went into the apartment, Sherwin testified Taggart wasn't moving, appeared very white and had a bruised and bloody nose.
He "went out into the living room and fell down," Sherwin told the court.
Crown Attorney Kim Bertholet plans to call roughly 30 witnesses over the course of the eight-week trial. It's the first jury trial in Windsor in approximately 20 months, the courts having shut down due to the pandemic.
On Monday, Bertholet outlined to the 14 jurors and Justice Renee Pomerance how the accused allegedly came into Canada using the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel at around 2:15 a.m. on June 10, 2018.
After purchasing and consuming cocaine, Bertholet alleges Bhogal broke into Taggart's apartment. Once inside, he allegedly told Taggart's son, who was nine-years-old at the time, to go back to his room and go to bed.
Proceedings continue Wednesday.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.
Registered nurses rallied in St. John's Wednesday as part of a week-long convention, again calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to create permanent solutions to staff shortages and workplace violence.
New poll results released by Narrative Research suggest the Progressive Conservatives are heading into Tuesday's provincial election with a commanding lead over their political rivals.
A measles outbreak in New Brunswick is set to push Canada's annual case count to the highest it's been in five years, highlighting how infectious the disease is and how low vaccination rates have allowed it to take hold, says an immunologist.