Custody of two children is the motive for a double murder committed three years apart in Mississauga, according to the Crown.
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Melissa Merritt at her arrest on January 29, 2014 in Nova Scotia with Chris Fattore (not visible in the photo).
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In Brampton, the Crown at the trial of Melissa Merritt showed the jury that the&# The accused's alibi did not match that of her alleged accomplice, who has already been convicted of the double murder for which she is now accused. Merritt is accused of ordering the murders of her ex-mother-in-law, Bridget Harrison, in 2010, and her ex-husband, Caleb Harrison, in 2013, because she allegedly wanted to ;#x27;time regain full custody of his two children.
Melissa Merritt's common-law husband at the time, Chris Fattore, was convicted of the premeditated murders of Bridget and Caleb Harrison following his trial in 2019.
At the time, the Crown had proven that he had strangled the mother and her son, three years apart , in the same house, at 3635 Pitch Pine Crescent in Mississauga.
The death of Bridget Harrison n' He had not immediately been investigated for homicide. That of his son, three years later – also due to asphyxiation – finally alerted the Peel Regional Police.
Christopher Fattore, upon his arrest in Nova Scotia in 2014 for the premeditated murders of Bridget and Caleb Harrison.
In this trial, the Crown claims that Melissa Merritt is just as responsible as her common-law husband who is now behind bars.
She accuses him of asking Fattore to murder Bridget and Caleb Harrison to obtain permanent custody of his children after years of legal proceedings concerning them.
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Melissa Merritt was a knowing accomplice and not an accessory after the fact, prosecutor Brian McGuire told the jury at the opening of the trial Monday.
Chris Fattore did not act alone and instead committed these murders with ;help and encouragement of the accused Melissa Merritt, he continued in his indictment.
The trial has so far shown that Merritt and Harrison married in 2002, before separating three years later because he was beating her. The couple had two children, a boy and a girl.
Caleb Harrison was also accused and then convicted in 2005 of assaulting Melissa Merritt, who subsequently met Chris Fattore.
The Crown on Thursday only addressed the suspicious death of Bridget Harrison in April 2010. It presented videos of the two interviews Merritt and Fattore gave separately after the murder of the 63-year-old grandmother.
Merritt and Fattore, who were not then suspected of anything either, admit that they spent the day together on the day of the murder, since she did not have custody of her children that day.
The Crown is trying to demonstrate that the accused fabricated their alibi in order to protect Fattore who physically committed the two murders.
Their alibi is not quite the same. Merritt notably forgot details about stopping at a store to return a purchase.
Although' ;she appears cheerful and laughing, her statements are confused and the events she comments on are not linear in time.
The Brampton courthouse, where Melissa Merritt's trial is taking place in the Superior Court of 'Ontario.
The times of the events that the two individuals describe that day – at the hairdresser or at the grocery store – are not quite the same either. Unlike Merritt, Fattore is in a somber mood and appears worried.
Merritt and Fattore argue that' ;#x27;they were at home when they learned from police around 9:30 p.m. that Bridget Harrison had been found dead in her home.
I was even more dismayed when the police attacked me said that it was my 7-year-old son who found her unconscious on the floor of the entrance hall, we hear him tell the police.< /p>
Both say in their respective videos that they were in shock, but that Caleb had a violent past .
Merritt further acknowledges that her relationship with her former family was strained, because she had reported her ex-husband for domestic violence.
The Crown showed the jury on Wednesday a dozen letters that Melissa Merritt had sent to the Harrisons starting in April 2008.
The correspondence shows that the mother was not very happy with the child care arrangements with her former in-laws and that she was worried about their safety.
A month after their separation, Caleb Harrison killed an individual while driving drunk. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2009. He was living with his mother at the time.
Caleb Harrison loved his children, even as he battled his own demons, prosecutor McGuire said .
The paternal grandparents had obtained shared custody of their grandchildren, while their father was serving his penalty.
Christopher Fattore was sentenced in 2019 to life without parole for 25 years for the premeditated murders of Bridget and Caleb Harrison.
Later, Merritt agreed with Caleb Harrison to share custody every other week in the early summer of 2013.
Caleb Harrison, however, was found strangled to death in his bed at his late parents' home later that same summer. He died the day the shared custody agreement ended. For the Crown, this is in no way a coincidence.
According to prosecutors, Merritt left Ontario with her children and Fattore after the murder of Caleb Harrison.
They will be found in January 2014 in Nova Scotia. Chris Fattore was then charged with the double murder.
The trial continues Friday with testimony from ' a police expert in forensic identification this time regarding the murder of the 40-year-old man.
With information from CBC
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