 Nicola Puddicombe, left, is on trial for murder. Her lesbian lover, Ashleigh Pechaluk, right, was earlier acquitted of the 2006 bludgeoning death of Dennis Hoy.
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TORONTO -- Dennis Hoy was bludgeoned to death by a merciless killer who wielded the blunt end of an axe into his skull, a defence lawyer charged yesterday.
Richard Stern is accusing Ashleigh Pechaluk of murdering Hoy -- who was the long-time boyfriend of Pechaluk's lover Nicky Puddicombe -- three years ago yesterday while sleeping in Puddicomb e's bed.
Pechaluk was acquitted in June of first-degree murder in Hoy's murder, but her former lover Puddicombe is now on trial for his slaying.
Stern told the jury Hoy represented an obstacle to Pechaluk's dream of a life together with Puddicombe. Pechaluk wanted to get rid of him, said Stern. Pechaluk testified she disliked Hoy, whom she testified had a "God complex." She had no contact with him for more than six months before his demise.
"Somebody who would do this couldn't have any feeling for this human being," asked Stern, who was showing a grisly photo of Hoy's skull with six wounds on a video screen at the time.
"I guess so, yes," replied Pechaluk.
"It's hard to imagine what kind of person would do that," asked Stern, who represents Puddicombe. She agreed.
Pechaluk was testifying in the first-degree murder trial of her ex-lover Puddicombe, now 36, who is accused in the homicide of her 36-year-old boyfriend Hoy, a GO Transit officer, at the Queensway apartment.
Stern read Pechaluk's journals aloud in court. Her writings spewed hatred and contempt for Hoy and unbridled love and lust for Puddicombe. In her journals, Pechaluk questioned why he should live while being so mean to the woman she loved since their relationship blossomed in the fall of 2005.
The love triangle worked -- with all three aware of the bizarre arrangement -- for seven months. But that came to an end in March 2006 on a night when the two women and Hoy socialized together. Hoy was upset after Pechaluk criticized him for not filling his girlfriend's gas tank. Hoy and Pechaluk never spoke or communicated again, but her hostility for him raged on in her journals.
Pechaluk concealed from Hoy the fact she had moved into Puddicombe's place and was living there for two months. Pechaluk confessed to his killing to police, but testified it was a false admission meant to protect her lover.
Hoy moved into his girlfriend's home and stayed for more than a week in 2006. While Hoy was sleeping with Nicky in the next room, Pechaluk hid in her bedroom and was forced to urinate in a bottle for several days.
The trial continues today.
