After deliberating for barely more than two hours, a Saskatoon jury found Anthony John Quattrocchi guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his roommate.
The jury convicted Quattrocchi, 33, of strangling 38-year-old Benjamin Green with a piece of wire in the basement of their Hudson Bay Park neighbourhood home sometime between June 21 and 26, 2014.
Quattrocchi was also found guilty of offering an indignity to human remains after police found Green’s body in a basement freezer on June 26, 2014. Officers went to the home to check on Green when his employer reported him missing.
The Crown argued Quattrocchi was guilty of first-degree murder because the act was planned and deliberate and committed during the commission of unlawful confinement — an element that constitutes first-degree murder.
In summarizing the Crown’s closing arguments, Justice Neil Gabrielson said the Crown noted that Quattrocchi admitted during a police interview that he killed Green. The Crown also argued that the death was not accidental based on the opinion of a forensic pathologist that it takes between four and six seconds to strangle someone to death.
Quattrocchi knew Green was dead when he put him in the freezer, the Crown pointed out.
Gabrielson also outlined the defence’s arguments. He said Quattrocchi’s lawyer, Patrick McDougall, said his client was intoxicated by methamphetamine at the time of the offence and thought Green was “coming at him” while they sat together in the basement, Gabrielson told the eight-man, four-woman jury.
The defence said Quattrocchi found some of his family’s property in Green’s room and confronted his roommate when the man returned home from a trip to Alberta. During his police interview, Quattrocchi said he tied Green up with packing tape and stole his bank card.
He later untied Green and a struggle ensued, ending with Quattrocchi reaching for a piece of cord and strangling his roommate. Gabrielson reminded the jury that the accused told police “it was out of fear for my own life and out of fear that if one of us weren’t dead, both of us were.”
If the jury didn’t accept that Quattrocchi was acting in self-defence, then his level of intoxication at the time should have warranted a verdict of manslaughter, Gabrielson summarized on behalf of the defence. He said the jury has the option of finding Quattrocchi guilty of either first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter, or acquitting him of all charges.
If there was an intent to kill, but neither planning or deliberation nor unlawful confinement was involved, then it would constitute second-degree murder, Gabrielson explained. If the jury believed Quattrocchi didn’t intend to kill Green, then he would be guilty of manslaughter.
Complete coverage: Anthony John Quattrocchi murder trial
