A man in Canada has been found guilty of murdering three women, two of whom were his ex-girlfriends, in a shooting rampage in Ontario in September of 2015.
Basil Borutski, 60, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for shooting to death Anastasia Kuzyk, 36, and Nathalie Warmerdam, 48, and one count of second-degree murder for strangling Carol Culleton, 66 on September 22, 2015.
The jury deliberated for 14 hours before returning their verdict. According to local press Bortuski said he was ‘not guilty’ as the trial wrapped and deliberations began.
During the trial haunting evidence photos showed terrifying letters Borutski wrote to his victims before the murders and a sawn off shot gun.
Borutski stands in a room at the Pembroke OPP detachment shortly after his arrest, his hands tied behind his back
At his home, as he leaves his apartment to begin his murderous rampage at 7:36am on Sept. 22, 2015
He murdered Warmerdam in under two minutes as surveillance cameras shows Borutski walking into her house with a shotgun at 9:31am and walking out at 9:33am
However, a taped confession was played for the court, in which Borutski, in reference to Warderdam’s murder, told an Ontario Provincial Police detective, ‘I just drove in, walked in the door, she was sitting there, she went around the corner, I followed her. Boom. That was it.’
He also told police that when he broke into Culleton’s house, he strangled her with a TV cable coil.
‘I wrapped it around her head. And she just kept saying, ‘This is not you, Basil, this is not you,’ he said according to CBC. Culleton had previously rejected Bortuski’s advances.
A couple of weeks before the murders, he went to Culleton’s home, and tore up flowers he planted after she sat on another man’s knee in front of him.
‘It’s not to late’: One of several frightening letters he wrote to his various victims shown during the trial
The sawed off shotgun, tossed in the grass, was used in the murders was shown during Bortuski’s trial
This photo, taken from a thumb drive found in Culleton’s cottage, shows flowers Borutski planted and then tore up and thrown into a boat on her property after she sat on another man’s knee in front of him
This is the shotgun that Warmerdam slept with under her bed after she accused Borutski of assaulting her
The convicted killer left his home on the morning of the murders, borrowing a neighbors car, and with a sawed off shotgun, began his murderous spree at Culleton’s home.
He left his neighbor’s car there, and, after the murder, stole her car and drove it to his next victim’s home.
He drove on to Kuzyk’s house. Months before the murders, he had been released from jail after being convicted of assaulting her.
Borutski was supposed to sign an order barring him from contacting Kuzyk, but refused and was released anyway.
Her sister, Eva, testified that she heard her sister scream and say ‘It’s Basil’ and then heard a gun go off. She said she ran outside the home- for her life.
‘I thought, we are both going to die,’ she testified.
He was also under a lifetime weapons ban.
Jurors deliberated for 14 hours before coming back with a guilty verdict for Borutski
Borutski then drove another half hour to Warmerdam’s house.
Warmerdam had accused Bortuski of assaulting her and she carried a personal tracking device because of him according to her son.
Her son Adrian testified.
He says he he saw his mother being chased by Borutski inside the house, and that he had a gun.
‘I ran out into the bush and I called 911 and waited for police,’ he said, adding he heard a gunshot as he made his escape.
Borutski told the OPP ‘it was funny, it was like I wasn’t even pulling the trigger on the gun, the gun was just going off. It was like, boop.’
Borutski was arrested around 2:30 PM that day after the entire area was placed on lock down.
Police placed the small Canadian town of Wilno on lockdown after a shooter gunned down and killed three women at separate locations