A Richmond woman who was under dire financial pressures has been convicted of murdering her husband. A B.C. Supreme Court jury found Jo Anne Alexander guilty of the January 2012 second-degree murder of John Alexander, 61.
The court heard that neither wife nor husband had been employed for years and the couple had no stable income.
In 2011, they were forced to sell their family home to pay off debt, had $24,000 in credit card bills and owed money to friends.
The Crown said Alexander was "trapped by her dire financial situation."
On Jan. 26, 2012, the accused called 911 and asked for someone to "take us away."
When police arrived at the family home, they found Alexander lying next to her husband on their bed.
He was under the covers, fully clothed and wearing a toque over his head. A dead dog was also on the bed.
The victim had large lacerations under the toque, was unresponsive and pronounced
dead at the scene. He died of multiple skull fractures and injuries to the brain, apparently caused by repeated blows to the head by a baseball bat. Just prior to calling 911, Jo Anne Alexander sent an email to friends.
"I can't stand it anymore," she said in the email, which was read in court.
"Some people think this is the coward's way out. For me, it's the most difficult thing I've ever done."
In her testimony, Alexander said on the day of the slaying, she heard her husband
make a funny or odd noise, as well as the family dog barking. She told the jury she went into the bedroom and saw her husband's legs flailing beneath his bedsheet and his left hand twitching.
Alexander claimed she saw a knife inserted into his right ear and that her husband grabbed her hand and tried to have her push the knife in further instead of remove it.
She told the jury she had no memory of hitting him and did not intend to kill him.. For the full story, go to theprovince.com.
