Man, 74, charged in intimate partner violence case
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The suspect, whose name was not released to protect the victim's identity, has been charged with two counts of assault with a weapon, and one charge each of assault, mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
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Global News
9 minutes ago
- Global News
Man sentenced to life for cocaine-induced stabbing death of St. Albert teen
WARNING: The details of this story may be disturbing to some readers. On Thursday, Kaj Alexander Randall pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for a stabbing that killed a 17-year-old girl and injured a 13-year-old girl in July 2024. The brutal attack happened in the girl's home in St. Albert last summer with a father figure they trusted. Jaeden Chaisson was stabbed to death on July 18, 2024 in a townhouse in the Riverside area of the city directly north of Edmonton. Due to the age of the victims, there was a publication ban protecting the identity of the 13-year-old girl. But on Thursday in court, now-14-year-old Brooklyn Janes fought to remove the ban on her identity. This follows the decision by the fatal stabbing victim's mother and Brooklyn's aunt, Nicole Chaisson, to remove the publication ban from her daughter's name earlier in the court case. Story continues below advertisement 'We weren't allowed to talk about [Jaeden], we were not allowed to show her face, but I want people to know what a beautiful person she was, the smile that she showed us all the time, this is who she was,' said Chaisson. 'This is what she needs to be remembered for, not for how she left us. So, I just want to honour the better parts of her story as opposed to the horrific ending that she had.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "This is what she needs to be remembered for, not for how she left us. So, I just want to honour the better parts of her story as opposed to the horrific ending that she had." '[Brooklyn] hasn't had that inside of her for over a year now, so for her to make that decision for herself to come back, even just a little bit, it means a lot to us, gives us a little more hope for her.' According to an agreed statement of facts, before the day of the attack, Randall had been a loving spouse to Kayla Chaisson and a loving father figure to Brooklyn Janes. He had never been aggressive or violent towards either of the teens. Randall, his common-law partner, Kayla Chaisson and her 13-year-old daughter Brooklyn had all lived together as a family for three years, and 17-year-old Jaeden moved in with her aunt and cousin a few weeks before the attack. View image in full screen Jaeden Chaisson, 17. Credit / GoFundMe On July 18th, 2024, 28-year-old Randall got off work and went to Kayla's work, where she was on shift, and had a beer while visiting with her. The agreed statement of facts said she didn't notice anything unusual about his behaviour or mood. Story continues below advertisement After that, he left her workplace, bought some cocaine and returned to the home, while Kayla was still at work. They had a 10-minute phone call about an hour and a half later, during which Kayla also talked to her daughter and described both her partner and child as happy. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy After that, things took a terrible turn. WARNING: Graphic details ahead Randall went into their ensuite bathroom on the top floor of the three-story home and snorted some of the cocaine he'd bought around 10 p.m. He then called Kayla again, but this time she noted his voice was unusually monotone and he sounded 'off' enough that she wrapped up work and left to go home. About five minutes later, Randall, armed with a kitchen knife, was down on the home's middle floor living area. He began stabbing Jaeden repeatedly in the head, neck, chest, and arms as she screamed for him to stop. Jaeden was stabbed a total of 21 times. Brooklyn was in her bedroom upstairs talking to a friend on the phone when she overheard Jaeden screaming. She hung up. She didn't know what was happening downstairs but could hear her cousin in pain. Brooklyn went to her bedroom door and tried to hold it shut, but Randall forced his way in. Story continues below advertisement He started to violently attacking the 13-year-old: stabbing, punching, kicking, and throwing her. She sustained at least 12 stab wounds. 1:52 Heartbroken mother remembers daughter fatally stabbed in St. Albert He briefly left the room, during which time Brooklyn crawled under her bed and tried to call 911, but Randall returned too quickly. He flipped the mattress, found the girl, and began violently assaulting the girl again. The girl described her mom's partner as 'looking crazy, breathing heavily, growling, and having eyes that were huge.' The statement of facts said he didn't say anything during the attack. At some point during the assault, his knife broke into pieces. Brooklyn then pretended to be dead, and Randall left the home and drove away. The attacks on both girls lasted about five minutes from start to finish. Story continues below advertisement As soon as she could no longer hear her attacker in the house, Brooklyn went downstairs to find Jaeden laying on the floor, severely injured but still alive. Shortly after, a friend Jaeden had invited over arrived, saw the girls covered in blood and severely injured, and called police. RCMP arrived to find Jaeden collapsed on the front lawn with deep stab wounds on her body. The officers jumped in to apply tourniquets and pressure on her wounds to stop the bleeding while waiting for paramedics to arrive. Both girls were taken to the Stollery Children's Hospital, but Jaeden's injuries were too severe and she had lost a lot of blood. She went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance. The 17-year-old suffered 14 more minor cuts, lacerations and stab wounds to her hands and arms, and seven more major stab wounds: three on the right of her neck, two on her shoulder, one hear her right clavicle, and one to the back of her head. One of the wounds damaged her carotid artery, which led to a great deal of blood loss and deprived her brain of oxygen. Brooklyn's physical injuries to her head, neck, shoulders and thorax were less severe and she was discharged from the hospital the next day. Despite several surgeries and procedures to keep Jaeden alive, she was taken off life support two days after the attack and died in hospital on July 20, 2024. Story continues below advertisement Her cause of death was multiple sharp force stabbing injuries. 1:07 Man facing murder charge after one of two St. Albert teen stabbing victims dies After leaving the scene of the attack, Randall got into his car and drove away erratically, glancing off another nearby building as he went down the alley. He sent a text to his partner, saying he loved her. As he drove down Ray Gibbon Drive out of St. Albert towards Edmonton, he threw his phone out the window into the ditch. It was found by police the next day. Randall went to his mom's home in Edmonton. The next day, she saw the arrest warrant for her son in the news and questioned him, to which he said, 'I think something is wrong with me.' RCMP found him there on the day Jaeden died and arrested him without incident. Story continues below advertisement A family grieving, but still tight-knit In court on Thursday, Brooklyn stood and said she looked up to Jaeden as a sister. Nicole Chaisson, Jaeden's mom and Brooklyn's aunt, said the two teens would FaceTime every morning as they got ready for school. Brooklyn would spend weekends at her house, and Jaeden would go to Kayla's. 'We're a very, very close family,' Nicole said. 'It's not like we're all doing our own thing. 'We all do it all together, the girls were just the next generation of the sisters doing it all together again. And you can definitely see that part — it's left a big hole in Brooklyn.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We all do it all together, the girls were just the next generation of the sisters doing it all together again. And you can definitely see that part — it's left a big hole in Brooklyn." Nicole said she and her sister, Kayla, have remained close in spite of the horror their family has endured. 'She was just as much a victim in this as anybody else. I love my sister very much,' said Nicole. Randall pleaded guilty and waived his right to a trial. The defence said Randall was experiencing drug-induced psychosis when attacked the teens, and added he had no motive for the crime. Through tears, Randall stood and told the courtroom, 'I'm sorry for all the pain this has caused, I didn't want any of this.' Story continues below advertisement In the courtroom, Justice Cheryl Arcand-Kootenauy sentenced Randall to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years. He also has a concurrent sentence of seven years for the attack on Brooklyn.
Winnipeg Free Press
9 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Husband suspected wife of poisoning him before she killed 3 relatives with toxic mushrooms
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The husband of a woman convicted of killing three people with a meal laced with deadly mushrooms suspected his wife had been poisoning him more than a year before the fatal meal, an Australian court has heard. A judge on Friday lifted a gag order on pretrial evidence that triple murderer Erin Patterson, 50, had wanted kept secret while she attempts to overturn her convictions. The evidence included the suspicions of Patterson's estranged husband Simon Patterson that she had previously attempted to kill him. Husband says he feared estranged wife would poison him Simon Patterson testified at a pre-trial hearing that he had declined the lunch invitation out of fear. 'I thought there'd be a risk that she'd poison me if I attended,' the husband told the court months before the trial in testimony that was not presented to jurors. Simon said while he had stopped eating food prepared by his wife, from whom he had been estranged since 2015, he never thought others would be at risk. Erin Patterson was convicted by a Victoria state Supreme Court last month of murdering her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson at her home in Leongatha with a lunch of beef Wellington pastries contained toxic death cap mushrooms. She was also found guilty of attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson, Heather's husband, who survived the meal but spent weeks in hospital. Erin Patterson was initially charged with attempting to murder her husband by inviting him to the lunch in July 2023. He had accepted the invitation then cancelled. She was also initially charged three counts of attempting to murder him on three occasions around Victoria between November 2021 and September 2022. Prosecutors dropped all charges relating to the husband before her trial began in April. Simon Patterson testified before the trial that he suspected his wife had deliberately made him seriously ill with dishes including penne bolognese pasta, chicken korma curry and a vegetable curry wrap. No poisons were ever found. The three alleged poisonings occurred during family camping trips. Simon shared his poisoning suspicions with his doctor, who encouraged him to create a spreadsheet listing what he had eaten around the time he became sick. Disclosures come as Patterson plans to appeal Justice Christopher Beale ruled for lawyers representing media who sought to overturn the gag order, ordering that the evidence that jurors had not seen would be made public. Erin Patterson's lawyers wanted all the evidence that was not deemed admissible at her trial kept secret until an appeals court decided whether to overturn her convictions. Their reasons included that media interest in the case was unprecedented. Defense lawyer Colin Mandy argued that reporting of the suppressed evidence as well as references to it in books, podcasts and a planned television mini-series would 'leave an indelible impression on the minds of potential jurors in the event that there is a retrial.' A hearing will begin on Aug. 25 to determine what sentence she will get. She faces a potential life sentence for each of the murders and 25 years for attempted murder. Prosecutor Jane Warren told Beale on Friday 'a lot' of victim impact statements would be presented at that two-day sentencing hearing. Once Erin Patterson is sentenced, she will have 28 days to lodge an appeal against the sentence, the convictions, or both. Her lawyers say they will appeal against her convictions.
CBC
9 minutes ago
- CBC
St. Albert man gets life sentence for fatally stabbing teen
Social Sharing An Alberta judge sentenced a St. Albert man to life in prison Thursday, after he pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing Jaeden Chaisson, 17, during a cocaine-induced psychosis. Kaj Randall, 29, will also serve seven years consecutively for repeatedly stabbing Chaisson's then-13-year-old cousin, Brooklyn Janes, his common-law partner's daughter. Randall won't be eligible for parole for 12 years. The sentence from Court of King's Bench Justice Cheryl Arcand-Kootenay was based on a joint submission in which Randall pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated assault. He had attacked the girls, one at a time, over a five-minute period. "Truly at the end of everything, there is no justice for our family because no matter what happens here today, it won't bring my daughter back, and that's all I want," Nicole Chaisson, Jaeden's mother, told the court earlier in the proceedings. "I just want my daughter back." Arcand-Kootenay noted Randall's remorse, guilty plea and character references as mitigating factors of the case. But she said the "brutally violent attack on two teens, who were home alone and attacked by a man they thought they could trust," in addition to the girls' ages, Indigenous heritage, and the impact on the family, made the crime more serious. In an agreed statement of facts, court heard about the dynamics in the household before the attacks on July 18, 2024. Randall was a "loving spouse" and "loving father-figure" to Janes, showing no signs of aggression. About an hour before the attack, Randall's partner, who was at work, spoke with him and Janes. She described them as happy. But at 9:59 p.m. MT, after Randall consumed an unknown amount of cocaine, the couple talked again and she thought he sounded off. She closed early to head home. Minutes later, Janes, who was on the third floor, heard her cousin screaming one floor below. Randall was repeatedly stabbing Chaisson with a kitchen knife. When Janes tried to hold her bedroom door shut, Randall forced his way in and began stabbing, punching, kicking and throwing her. He left momentarily. She crawled under her bed and tried calling 911, but Randall returned, flipped the mattress up and continued assaulting her. "She described him as looking crazy, breathing heavily, growling, and having eyes that were huge," the agreed statement says. Janes pretended to be dead, and Randall left the home. She then rushed downstairs and found her cousin severely injured, but still alive. At that time, a friend arrived at the house and called 911. Two days later, Randall was arrested at his mother's house, hours before Chaisson died from her injuries in the hospital. "I have flashbacks constantly reminding me that I wasn't even able to hold her hand as her tiny body and warm, loving spirit were leaving this physical world," Nicole Chaisson told court, her voice strong, but thick with grief. "All of this was done by someone who was looked at like a brother, a son, an uncle, and a father," she said. "I asked you if my daughter would be safe, but you lied," she said to Randall in court. Court heard that Janes was once confident, but now struggles with depression, nightmares and staying focused on school assignments. On Thursday, Arcand-Kootenay agreed to a request from Janes to lift the publication ban on her identity. The publication ban on Chaisson's name was lifted previously. Randall remorseful Before his sentencing, an often teary Randall stood in the prison box and apologized to the family. "I'm sorry for all the pain I caused," Randall said. "I didn't want any of this to happen." Earlier, court heard that Randall was mainly raised by his older sister, so his single mother could work. He witnessed her being attacked by a boyfriend. According to his lawyer, Brian Hurley, Randall didn't finish high school but worked steadily until he got in with a bad crowd. By 19, Randall was drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana and using cocaine and MDMA — commonly known as ecstasy or molly. The stabbing last year was not Randall's first time attacking someone because of drugs, although the Chaisson family only discovered that afterward. According to parole board documents, Randall broke into a St. Albert home in January 2016 while a family was sleeping and repeatedly stabbed a pregnant woman in the back. The parole board attributed his actions to a $15,000 drug debt accrued while selling cocaine. "Mr. Randall knew he was capable of extreme violence," Arcand-Kootenay said Thursday. She urged Randall to use his prison time positively, to "understand what's being taught so you can apply that in your life." She wished the Chaisson family a peaceful journey.
