Beryl Musila sentenced to life in jail for homicide of St. Albert senior Ronald Worsfold

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When all was mentioned and performed, Beryl Musila stood, took a final look across the courtroom, then opened the rear door of the prisoner’s field and disappeared into the Edmonton courthouse’s labyrinth of cells.

With that ended a tragic and infrequently weird trial that, with all its twists and turns, lasted almost one 12 months.

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On Thursday, Musila, 34, was sentenced to life in jail for the homicide of Ronald Worsfold, a senior who went lacking from the St. Albert condominium he managed on July 7, 2017. Police discovered his physique on a rural property close to Devon the following day, sealed in a plastic tote bin.

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With the obligatory 25-year parole ineligibility interval — and accounting for her greater than six years in pre-trial custody — Musila shall be in her early 50s earlier than she will be able to apply for launch within the 2040s.

“It’s like a ton of weight off your shoulders,” Ronald Worsfold’s daughter Stacey Worsfold mentioned outdoors court docket. “We’re over six years now (since his dying), and that was an extended, lengthy journey. However to have this stage of this performed … I’m so grateful.”

Worsfold, 75, was well-known in St. Albert. He labored for 34 years as a clerk at a neighborhood Petro-Canada gasoline station and was the resident supervisor at 75 Mission Ave., an condominium throughout from town’s well-known grain elevator. He lived alone following the dying of his spouse however, on the time of his dying, was permitting Musila to stick with him.

Musila was a single mom of two with habit points who was leaving an abusive relationship, Courtroom of King’s Bench Justice Larry Ackerl heard. She lived at 75 Mission and started staying with Worsfold when she once more fell on arduous occasions. They have been seen collectively the evening earlier than his dying at a liquor retailer and a neighborhood intercourse store, the place Musila mentioned Worsfold — who she testified was a platonic good friend — had taken her to purchase underwear to enhance her shallowness.

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Musila claimed she awoke the following morning to seek out Worsfold’s bloody physique in his mattress. She hurriedly cleaned the condominium whereas Stacey Worsfold, who arrived outdoors, grew more and more suspicious. Musila organized to have a tote bin dropped off, into which she loaded Worsfold’s bare, handcuffed physique.

Whereas Musila admitted to transferring Worsfold’s physique, she insisted she didn’t kill him, telling jurors she was on the centre of a conspiracy to border her for homicide.

The Crown, alternatively, instructed Musila drugged Worsfold with Ativan and alcohol, then stabbed and beat him when it appeared he was overdosing. Why she did this stays a thriller, however John Schmidt, who prosecuted the case alongside Patricia Hankinson, instructed Musila both needed to keep away from having intercourse with Worsfold, or meant to steal his assortment of sports activities memorabilia, which was saved in an Edmonton storage locker.

Musila carted the tote and a taxi cab filled with belongings across the Edmonton space, finally abandoning it on an acreage the place Patrick Tansem-Reid was internet hosting an LSD-tinged home get together to have fun the top of his parole. After realizing there was a physique contained in the tote, Tandem-Reid known as police. Musila was arrested on July 9, 2017, and has been in jail ever since.  

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After her arrest, Musila claimed she had been concerned in intercourse work and that Worsfold would handcuff her and depart her restrained for prolonged durations of time. She later recanted and advised jurors her relationship with Worsfold was not sexual.

Jurors heard different weird particulars, together with that Musila had intercourse with a neighbour in Worsfold’s suite after doing cocaine in that man’s unit (which Musila denied). Musila additionally made an uncommon collection of Google Maps searches across the time of Worsfold’s dying, together with “the place are the hidden keys,” “how am I certain I gained’t stroll away empty handed,” “so depart the nation after this?” and “I don’t have a gun and he’s heavy.”

Robert Rafters, Musila’s ex-boyfriend and a key Crown witness, mentioned he had seen Musila use Google Maps in “scary methods,” saying she would usually enter “random, nonsensical issues” into the search engine.

“I by no means for the lifetime of me may perceive what it needed to do with something, however for her it was a precedence,” he testified.

Musila claimed Rafters helped her load Worsfold’s physique into the tote, which he denied. The Crown admitted Rafters was a “horrible” witness who could have been “extra concerned within the clear up of the scene than he claimed,” however burdened there was no proof he was at 75 Mission Ave. when Worsfold was killed.

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‘Shattered a number of lives’

Ackerl, the decide, had little leeway in sentencing Musila for first-degree homicide, which carries an automated life sentence with no parole for 25 years from the date of arrest.

He sentenced her to two-and-a-half years for inflicting an indignity to Worsfold’s physique, which was coated by her time in remand.

Ackerl mentioned Worsfold’s homicide “shattered a number of lives throughout generations of household and pals.” Musila acted intentionally and selfishly to attempt to deprive investigators of proof and reduce her involvement, he mentioned.

Ackerl added that Musila — who represented herself at trial after firing a number of attorneys — was however a “ready, articulate and clever” girl who confirmed hope for rehabilitation.

Stacey Worsfold believes her father was killed as a result of he was planning to chop ties with Musila. She mentioned her father was well-known for giving down-on-their-luck residents assist getting again on their toes, however realized Musila was hassle.

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“He was chopping her out of his life, and that’s the true purpose I consider this occurred,” she mentioned. “I feel she panicked, as a result of nobody else needed her.”

Worsfold mentioned she stays open to forgiving Musila, however mentioned “there’s nonetheless no regret, there’s nonetheless no accountability on her finish.”

She mentioned she is pleased with her dad and believes she is going to discover peace.

“I bear in mind him each morning when the blue jays come to get their peanuts,” she mentioned. “I bear in mind him each time now we have a thunderstorm, as a result of we used to sit down on his balcony and watch the lightning and take heed to the thunder rolling by way of subsequent to the grain elevators. Each time I see a Petro-Can, each time I am going to a hockey recreation. His reminiscence is so many locations.”

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