Warning: This story has graphic and disturbing details about a murder case.
Andrew Berry murdered his two young daughters on Christmas Day 2017 in part because he wanted to hurt his former partner, Sarah Cotton, a B.C. Supreme Court judge said Monday.
“Mr. Berry resented Ms. Cotton separating from him and he believed she did so at a time, and in a manner, that inflicted maximum damage on him personally and financially,” Justice Miriam Gropper said on the first day of what’s expected to be a four-day sentencing hearing.
“Ms. Cotton made complaints about him to police and to the Ministry of Children and Family Development, which resulted in Mr. Berry being prevented access to his daughters for some period of time.”
On Sept. 26, after a six-month trial, a jury convicted Berry of the second-degree murders of six-year-old Chloe and four-year-old Aubrey at his Beach Drive apartment. The girls had been stabbed to death. Berry was found with life-threatening injuries, naked in the bathtub, asking first responders to kill him.
After listening to submissions from Crown and defence, Gropper made a finding of facts based on the evidence at trial to help her determine an appropriate sentence for Berry.
While Berry will be sentenced to life in prison, Gropper must decide how long he must serve before being eligible for parole. Parole eligibility for second-degree murder is 10 to 25 years.
During the proceedings, Berry sat in the prisoner’s dock taking notes. He did not appear to show any emotion. His sister sat in the front row of the public gallery, crying at times and looking at her brother.
Gropper found that Berry complained for years about the girls’ mother and his difficulties with the police and the Children’s Ministry. “He expressed his belief that Ms. Cotton had intentionally taken steps to ‘screw him over,’ ” said the judge.
Even in hospital, in the days after the murders, Berry complained about Cotton to his sister and to a psychiatrist. He felt anger toward Sarah and blamed her and his own parents for all his difficulties, said Gropper. Berry wanted Cotton and his parents to blame themselves for his suicide and he wanted his sister to blame them, as well, she said.
“Mr. Berry intended for his actions to harm Sarah Cotton and his parents,” said Gropper.
Berry, who had no money and couldn’t afford to pay his rent or electricity bill, knew he wouldn’t get the girls back after he returned them to their mother on Christmas Day. His sister warned him to keep up with his maintenance payments so he wouldn’t lose custody, said the judge.
Gropper found that at some point before the killings, Berry decided to commit suicide. His suicide note refers to the children carrying on without him, she noted.
“The motivations for all Mr. Berry’s actions on Dec. 25, 2017, stem, in part, from his animosity to Sarah Cotton. This has been proven by Mr. Berry himself, in wanting the blame for his suicide placed on her and to keep her from having the girls after his death.”
The jury rejected Berry’s testimony that a dark-skinned man killed Chloe and Aubrey and attacked and injured him, said the judge. The jury found that Berry caused the injuries that resulted in the deaths of both girls.
The jury also rejected the suggestion that Berry was suffering from a mental disorder that prevented him from forming the intent to kill. The jury found that Berry did form the intent to kill his daughters, said Gropper.
The judge rejected Berry’s evidence that he was forced to store packages of drugs in his suite because of gambling debts he owed to an Asian man named Paul.
“It defies common sense,” said Gropper. “It is unbelievable Mr. Berry would provide his new address to a loan shark. It is also unbelievable that the loan shark would grant him numerous extensions of loan terms. It is unfathomable that Mr. Berry would allow Paul’s associates into his apartment when his children were there.”
Gropper also rejected Berry’s evidence that he and the children walked back and forth to a golf course — a distance of one kilometre — four times on Christmas Day to go sledding twice, without eating or drinking anything at lunch.
It also defies logic that a dark-skinned man would kill the children but leave Berry alive, said the judge.
Oak Bay police Const. Peter Ulanowski, the first police officer to arrive at the suite, found the door locked. After he got a key, he found the door obstructed and the hallway littered with clothes and toys strewn about, said Gropper. There was no sign of forced entry into the suite.
“I agree with the Crown — it is clear the jury did not believe Berry’s evidence on what occurred in the suite.”
Gropper found the age of the girls and the fact that Berry was their father to be an aggravating factor.
Also aggravating is the fact that Chloe and Aubrey were murdered in their home, killed in the beds where their bodies were found, she said.
Gropper found that the two young girls were murdered on the morning of Dec. 25, rather than the afternoon, as Berry claimed. Chloe and Aubrey were last seen playing in the snow on Dec. 24 around 11 p.m. No one in the apartment building heard or saw them on Christmas Day.
Gropper found that Chloe was struck on the head with a small pink baseball bat with her name on it. The blow was enough to render her unconscious. She was also stabbed 26 times. Aubrey was stabbed 32 times.
Berry was at the end of his rope financially. His bank accounts were overdrawn. He had no income or job prospects and he lied to his sister that he was working. He gambled his pension away. His rent was in arrears. There was almost no food in the suite and no Christmas presents for the girls, said Gropper.
Victim-impact statements will be presented to the court Tuesday.
