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Accused in Ajax triple slaying was in a rage after breakup and knew what he was doing, Crown says

Cory Fenn, who has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of a woman and her two children in 2018, holds a dictionary in the prisoner's box at the Superior Court of Justice in Oshawa. (Pam Davies/CBC - image credit)
Cory Fenn, who has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of a woman and her two children in 2018, holds a dictionary in the prisoner's box at the Superior Court of Justice in Oshawa. (Pam Davies/CBC - image credit)

Cory Fenn, accused in the slayings of a mother and her two children, knew exactly what he was doing when he carried out the killings, the Crown said Monday during closing arguments at Fenn's trial.

Crown attorney Mike Newell said "the sheer brutality" of the attacks on the victims showed Fenn's intent to murder.

Fenn, 33, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Krassimira Pejcinovski, 39, her 13-year-old daughter, Venellia, and her 15-year-old son, Roy.

The mother and daughter were found stabbed to death while the son died as a result of strangulation at their Ajax, Ont., home on March 14, 2018.

Newell said Fenn, who admitted to the killings in an interview with a Durham Police homicide detective the day after they happened, was "demonstrably aware" of his surroundings and remembered what he had done that day.

"He had the wherewithal to lie and deflect," Newell said in court Monday.

Fenn told police he was in a state of "cocaine psychosis" at the time of the killings and only remembered "bits and pieces" of what happened. He is representing himself after firing his former attorney, and declined to testify in court last week.

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A key piece of evidence at the trial has been a video interview police conducted with Fenn in which he admitted to the killings, but said he was on a five-day cocaine binge at the time, and didn't know what he was doing. Fenn's mental state will be one of the main elements Justice Howard Leibovich will have to consider at the judge-alone trial.

"The only source of evidence suggesting any level of intoxication comes from Mr. Fenn," Newell said. "His claim stands alone and uncorroborated by any witness."

On March 13, 2018, Victoria Pejcinovski, the eldest daughter who was not in the home at the time of the killings, found cocaine in the basement apartment of their home, where Fenn lived. She confronted her mom about the drugs and gave her an ultimatum: get the cocaine out of the home and break up with Fenn, or she would go to the police.

In his closing arguments, Newell argued that Fenn and Pejcinovski's "on-again-off-again" relationship was volatile and toxic, and the addition of drugs resulted in Fenn's rage. Newell said Pejcinovski went to talk to Fenn the night of March 14 to break up with him.

"The knife was afterwards, I just strangled her in the garage and then after because she kept breathing and I went and I got a knife," Fenn told homicide detective Mark Pillman in a video interview on March 15.

"I was so just like f---d man, I f---d up man, I just wanted her to die."

Fenn's admission that he left the garage to go get a knife from the main floor kitchen showed intent to kill, Newell argued.

"He had time to think, he had time to desist. Instead he returned and stabbed her," he said.

Pejcinovski suffered multiple fractures to her skull and jaw and had 17 fractured ribs and bruising across her face, neck, limbs and torso, court heard weeks before from a forensic pathologist.

"Did you ever consider calling an ambulance to try and get anybody help?" Pillman asked in the video.

"No," Fenn replied.

WATCH / Cory Fenn recalls events of March 14, 2018 in interview with Durham homicide detective:

Pejcinovski's body was found in the garage buried under piles of garbage bags and tires, three hours after police came to the home.

"In his rage, he made her suffer, he intended to cause her death, and he concealed what he had done," Newell said.

"He knew what he was doing was wrong."

Venellia was rushed to hospital after she was found in the basement, both of her eyes blackened, bruising across her face, forehead and above her left ear.

Pillman asked how her face had appeared so bruised when police found her, to which he replied "Kicked, kicked, kicked, not looking down and kicking."

Fenn told Pillman he had left her and returned with a butter knife, to stab her and shove her body under a bed, court heard.

Roy Pejinovski's body was found hidden under a comforter in the main-floor bedroom of the home. Autopsy results showed the boy was strangled.

"Going through the house, he was the first one I found," Fenn told Pillman.

"Though Roy may have struggled for his life, he was no match for the massive man who attacked him," Newell said.

The Crown said it was unclear when the victims were attacked but said the mother was likely the first.

On the morning of March 14, when Pejicnovski didn't come into work at Spa Sedona in Ajax, her boss, Sherry Robinson, went to her home to check up on her.

Fenn answered the door with blood on his arms, saying Pejicnovski was sick and couldn't come to work, court previously heard. When Robinson asked to see her again, he said she took too many drugs the night before and he will have her call Robinson.

Newell said Fenn recognized Robinson's persistence and concern.

"At no time did he express remorse or appear stressed," he said.

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When Fenn went upstairs to the second floor of the home and saw Venellia's friend, Sylvia Verestoy, who was sleeping over that night, he asked her where Victoria, the eldest daughter was.

Fenn appeared to have been "on the hunt" for Victoria, Newell said.

When Robinson left the home and drove down to the end of the street to call police, Fenn took off with a packed bag of cash and drugs, ditching his car and phone at a Petro-Canada and calling a cab using the gas station phone to take him to his ex's home in Oshawa to hide in a shed, court heard.

"He knew where he wanted to go, he had a plan, a destination," Newell said. "After he left, he didn't drive around aimlessly, he didn't wander,"

Fenn appeared in court Monday with the top of his hair tied up in a bun and his beard grown out. "I'm a sovereign king," he yelled in court before Crown counsel began closing arguments.

"I have nothing more to say," Fenn told the judge after court heard Crown submissions. "I found my soul in Toronto South [Detention Centre] ... There's life inside me. I was walking dead, I'm animate now."

"I have God inside me, I've raised myself to a sovereign king," he said.

Fenn has not called any witnesses or cross-examined anyone who testified in court.

Though Fenn fired her, his former attorney Mary Cremer has remained to assist him at the behest of the judge.

She will have an opportunity to present closing arguments on Oct. 25.