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WINNIPEG -- Two men arrested in one of the most shocking killings in recent memory entered surprise guilty pleas yesterday.
Roxanne Fernando, 24, was bludgeoned to death on Feb. 15, 2007, while supposedly out celebrating Valentine's Day with a man she thought was her boyfriend.
Her frozen body wasn't discovered until nearly two weeks later, when officers followed a tip to a ditch near Mollard Road and Ritchie Street in an area north of The Maples.
Nathanael Plourde and Jose Toruno, both 21, had pleaded innocent in the killing and were expected to have their case go before a jury yesterday afternoon. That changed yesterday morning after Justice Glenn Joyal ruled that Plourde's videotaped confession to police could be admitted as evidence.
Plourde, his voice barely audible, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder while Toruno pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Remorseful
Plourde shuffled out of court yesterday in leg restraints, red-eyed and sniffling.
"He was remorseful and didn't want to put the family through a trial," said Plourde's lawyer Roberta Campbell when asked outside court about her client's unexpected guilty plea.
The men will return to court for sentencing this morning.
Plourde faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, Toruno a life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
A then 17-year-old co-accused was convicted in October 2007 of first-degree murder and received the maximum youth sentence of 10 years.
In a brief address to court, prosecutor Mark Kantor outlined the Crown's theory of the killing.
Court heard Fernando pursued a romantic relationship with Plourde, who did not return her affections and plotted with the 17-year-old co-accused to kill her. When the two were "unable to complete the plan," they enlisted Toruno's help, Kantor said.
A judge was told at the 17-year-old's hearing Plourde offered the boy $500 and a 32-inch TV in return for killing Fernando.
The boy initially refused, believing Plourde "wasn't serious."
On Feb. 15, 2007, Plourde made arrangements to exchange Valentine's Day gifts with Fernando, who had previously told Plourde she was pregnant with his child. Plourde picked her up at her Maples home and drove to Little Mountain Park.
Fernando didn't know the boy was hiding in the backseat under a blanket, armed with rubber gloves and tape. After arriving at the park, Fernando and Plourde got out of the car and Plourde set upon her with a wrench, hitting her up to 20 times in the head.
The boy got out of the car, taped her feet together and wrapped her in a blanket before dumping her body in the trunk.
Plourde and Toruno beat Fernando to death with a hockey stick and then buried her body in the snow.
Toruno's lawyer Greg Brodsky told court yesterday his client believed he was recruited by the two co-accused to help dispose of a body and did not know Fernando was still alive when he came to their aid.
dean.pritchard@sunmedia.ca