Andrew Berry guilty of second-degree murder in Christmas slaying of two daughters
Credit to Author: Keith Fraser| Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 00:48:04 +0000
Following a fiercely contested trial, an Oak Bay man charged with murdering his two young daughters on Christmas Day two years ago has been found guilty of the heinous crimes.
The verdict for Andrew Berry, who pleaded not guilty to the December 2017 second-degree murders of Chloe Berry, 6, and Aubrey Berry, 4, came following three days of deliberations by a 12-member B.C. Supreme Court jury.
There were hugs and tears from friends and family supporting Berry’s estranged wife Sarah Cotton, while Berry hung his head low immediately after the ruling.
Police were called to Berry’s apartment on Christmas Day after Cotton had reported that Berry had failed to return the children to her as part of a custody arrangement.
They discovered the bodies of the two girls in their bedrooms. Court heard that Chloe had been struck in the head at least once, hard enough to fracture her skull, and had been stabbed a total of 26 times.
Aubrey had been stabbed 32 times. Police also discovered a naked and injured Berry in his bathtub. He’d suffered wounds that the Crown alleged were self-inflicted. Berry denied that claim at trial.
The accused, a former economist employed by B.C. Ferries, was taken to the hospital where he received treatment for his injuries. He was arrested later and charged with the offences and has since remained in custody.
The Crown theory at trial was that Berry was under financial pressures after having quit his job, had a longstanding animosity towards Cotton and believed she wanted to get him out of their daughters’ lives.
The accused testified in his own defence and was then subjected to a rigorous cross-examination that went on for several days.
Six-year-old Chloe Berry (left) and her four-year-old sister Aubrey died on Christmas Day, 2017.
He denied the allegation that he had killed his daughters and claimed to have been stabbed in the throat by an unidentified assailant, telling the jury that when he came to, his girls were dead.
Berry claimed that he was a problem gambler and owed thousands to a loan shark who had a set of keys to his apartment.
But in their closing arguments, the Crown scoffed at Berry’s story, saying that he had told an elaborate yarn and that his claims read like the plot from a “bad low-budget movie.”
The trial, which was moved to Vancouver following a defence change of venue application, was a hotly contested proceeding that featured frequent objections by both Crown and defence lawyers.
The objections required the jury to leave the room each time while B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper, the trial judge, dealt with the matters that had arisen. Emotions at times ran high with the jury hearing graphic evidence of the crimes.
The trial began in April with 14 jurors but two of them were excused during the proceedings, leaving nine men and three women to decide the case.
with files from David Carrigg