By Peter EdwardsSTAFF REPORTER
Thu., Aug. 14, 2008timer2 min. read
Three contract killers who slit the throat of popular Markham restaurateur Maria Wong will be eligible for parole in five years, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder charges today.
Mr. Justice Ted Minden called Norman Figueroa, 28, Andre Jones, 38, and Christian Ortiz, 28, "cold, calculating, heartless and dangerous individuals" who are guilty of an "unspeakably brutal execution of a totally innocent victim."
The three men have been in custody since August 1999, after being arrested for the February 1999 murder-for-hire of Wong, 44, whose husband Shu Kwan (Johnny) Wong wanted her dead to collect a $600,000 insurance policy.
They were originally convicted of first-degree murder in Wong's murder in July 2002, but last February, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered they should have a new trial because the original trial judge erred while instructing the jury.
The three men today plead guilty in Superior Court in Newmarket to the lesser charge of second degree murder, which Minden noted would spare the court the uncertainty, difficulty and expense of a new trial.
The original sentence meant that they would have had to wait at least 25 years before they would have been eligible for parole.
Figueroa, Jones and Ortiz each declined to comment before Minden agreed with a plea bargain agreement entered by the Crown and defence teams.
Court heard the murder was organized by Wong's husband – Shu Kwan "Johnny" Wong – a gambling addict who planned to pay off debts and set up a small Nevada casino with the insurance money.
Johnny Wong is now serving a life sentence in prison with no chance of parole, after abandoning his appeal of the original verdict.
Court heard that Jones, a bouncer in a gambling club who lived with his mother, bought a red track suit, which he thought would hide Wong's blood.
Jones then balked at carrying out the murder himself, pulling Figueroa and Ortiz, then both just 19, into the plot.
"This horrific and despicable crime was carefully considered and thought through," Minden told court, as he said that all of the three men were essential for the murder.
Maria Wong, a popular philanthropist who ran a restaurant in the Spadina and Dundas St. W. area of downtown Toronto, was attacked and left for dead in the garage of her family home on Raymerville Dr.
In the 2002 trial, evidence showed Figueroa originally lied to police, saying he was not in Markham the night of the murder. In his instructions to the jury, Mr. Justice John McIsaac said, "This conceded false explanation may go some distance in confirming (Figueroa's) involvement in the murder conspiracy."
The appeal judges ruled there was no reasonable basis upon which the jury could have deduced Figueroa's lies "were more consistent with his involvement in a murder scheme than with his involvement in a carjacking scheme."
Those comments tainted the original convictions, the appeals court ruled.
In the original trial, court heard that Ortiz yelled "Die, bitch, die," as he slashed at Wong's throat with a knife.
Ortiz showed little emotion in court today. Figueroa grinned and joked with Jones in court today and glared at reporters, while Jones smiled broadly at his brother, who sat in the courtroom.
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