Update: The jury has reached a verdict in the case of an Oak Bay man accused of murdering his two young daughters on Christmas Day 2017. Full story here.
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A B.C. Supreme Court jury continues to deliberate the fate of an Oak Bay man accused of murdering his two young daughters on Christmas Day 2017.
Andrew Berry has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murders of six-year-old Chloe and four-year-old Aubrey, who were stabbed to death in his Beach Drive apartment.
The jury, which has been sequestered since 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, retired for the night at 7 p.m. Wednesday. At that point they had deliberated for 12 hours. They are expected to resume their deliberations at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.
The issues the jury must decide include whether the Crown has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Berry is the person who killed Chloe and Aubrey. If they decide he did, the next question is: Did he intend to kill them?
If the jury is not satisfied that Berry intended to kill Chloe and Aubrey, they must find him guilty of the included offence of manslaughter, Justice Miriam Gropper told the jury in her final instructions.
If they have a reasonable doubt he killed the girls, they must acquit.
The jury, which has been sitting since mid-April, must try to reach a unanimous decision.
The defence argued that the Crown’s case was purely circumstantial and there is a complete absence of evidence that Berry’s injuries were self-inflicted.
Berry denied killing his daughters or trying to commit suicide on Christmas Day. He testified that he had fallen deeper and deeper into debt with an Asian loan shark named Paul in 2017. He told the jury that he borrowed $10,000 from Paul at the River Rock casino in Richmond in January 2017 and could not pay it back. He said a rock was thrown through his window and two young Chinese men came to his apartment looking for Paul’s money. They stored drugs in his apartment and took his spare key, he said.
Berry testified that he was tackled and stabbed when he and the girls returned home from a tobogganing trip on Christmas Day.
When he regained consciousness, he said, he found Chloe dead in her bed.
During final submissions, the Crown argued that by Dec. 24, life had become hopeless and unbearable for Berry. He had no money, no prospects, a great deal of debt and a gambling problem, and he knew that the girls were about to be taken away from him because he couldn’t afford to feed them or pay for electricity.
The Crown believes Berry was planning to kill himself — not the two girls — but he lost his temper with his six-year-old, hit her on the head with a baseball bat and realized there was no turning back. He stabbed Chloe repeatedly, then did the same to Aubrey, who was still asleep. Then he tried to kill himself.
