A phone call brought police to an apartment on Tyndall Avenue in Parkdale on Saturday, April 29, 2000. Inside was the body of James Campbell, 63. The Toronto Star reported that his sister had found him and that police believed he knew his attacker.
James Thomas Campbell was known as Jimmy. The Star spelled it Jimmie. It described him as a retired Canada Packers worker who had moved to Toronto from Sydney, N.S., in 1965 and lived alone. The Globe and Mail called him a long-time Parkdale resident “often found in bars such as the Gladstone Hotel and the Dufferin Gate.” An autopsy found he had probably been strangled.
On Monday, May 1, Patricia Bailey, a 25-year-old nanny, was found strangled in the bathtub of her apartment on Chalkfarm Drive. The Globe and Mail counted her death as Toronto’s 20th homicide of the year and Campbell’s as the 19th. It said her case bore similarities to his. Police did not believe the two were related. The paper added that four people had been strangled in the city in 1999 and six in 1998.
The arrest came after nearly 14 months. On June 25, 2001, police said a DNA match had led to it, the Globe and Mail reported the next day. Peter Dale MacDonald, 42, of no fixed address, was charged with first-degree murder. The Globe called Campbell a pensioner “known in neighbourhood taverns as Jimmy.”
The Windsor Star later reported that MacDonald was a drifter who lived between Toronto and Windsor in 2000. In Windsor, Michelle Charette, 40, was last seen alive on July 25 of that year. Her body was found in a vacant lot on August 16. On July 4, 2001, investigators charged MacDonald with her murder. He was committed for trial in 2002. In 2003, on the eve of trial, the Crown withdrew the charge because of witness and evidence problems.
In Campbell’s case, the Crown argued at the preliminary inquiry that MacDonald had sexually assaulted Campbell by anal intercourse, which would make the killing first-degree murder. The judge ordered MacDonald to stand trial on that charge. On April 30, 2004, the Court of Appeal for Ontario quashed the order. It found no evidence of anal intercourse and no injury to the rectum or anus. The trace of sperm found there matched Campbell’s own DNA. A mixture of Campbell’s semen and MacDonald’s saliva on the bed sheet suggested oral sex, and the Crown did not suggest that act was non-consensual. The court ordered MacDonald to stand trial for second-degree murder.
MacDonald went to trial before a jury. The Windsor Star later reported that he was convicted in 2004. The Court of Appeal summarized the evidence in a 2008 judgment.
Campbell and MacDonald met in a park in Toronto. MacDonald, then in his early forties, had been drinking. He was an admitted alcoholic with a lengthy criminal past and had left a detoxification centre that morning. The two talked and decided to go to a bar. On the way, Campbell invited MacDonald back to his apartment. MacDonald asked if Campbell was homosexual. Campbell said he was. MacDonald, who was bisexual, had no place to stay that night. He had engaged in consensual sex with men in the past in exchange for a place to stay. He thought sex could happen.
MacDonald was the only witness to what happened in the apartment. He testified that both men drank heavily. In the bedroom, he said, he was performing oral sex on Campbell when Campbell grabbed his testicles and squeezed very hard. MacDonald pulled away. Campbell flicked his fingers at his face. A struggle followed. MacDonald put his arms around Campbell’s neck and squeezed for five or six seconds. Campbell did not move. MacDonald said he checked for a pulse and found that Campbell was dead.
MacDonald said he panicked. With his criminal background, he thought no one would believe he had not meant to kill. He decided to make it look as though Campbell had been robbed. He spent about half an hour altering the scene and destroying evidence. He took $15 from Campbell’s wallet and left other valuables.
The pathologist found that Campbell died of neck compression, possibly manual strangulation. The assailant had used significant pressure and may have been kneeling on Campbell’s back. Depending on the cause of death, the pressure could have lasted as little as 15 seconds or as long as 90. Campbell’s blood-alcohol level was 0.158. He was a regular drinker with a tolerance for alcohol.
MacDonald’s lawyer told the jury in his opening that manslaughter was conceded. During the trial he defined the issue as murder or manslaughter. The trial judge told the jury, “this case is not a whodunit. We know whodunit.” The Crown argued that MacDonald meant to kill Campbell, or meant to cause bodily harm he knew was likely to kill him. It brought evidence of his time in prison to argue that he was not a man who would panic when someone turned aggressive. The defence of provocation was also left with the jury. The jury rejected it and convicted MacDonald of second-degree murder.
MacDonald appealed on three grounds, including that the jury should have been told it could acquit him. On August 1, 2008, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. It said the trial judge had put the case to the jury the way the defence wanted it put. It said she should not have defined “reckless” as she did, but that the jury was not misled.
On October 28, 2010, Toronto police charged MacDonald, then 52, with three counts of first-degree murder. The victims were Julieanne Middleton, 23, Virginia Coote, 33, and Darlene MacNeill, 35. Police said all three had worked as sex workers in Parkdale to feed drug addictions. Middleton’s body was found in Lake Ontario along the western waterfront on July 7, 1994. Coote’s was found in the same area on October 28, 1994, and MacNeill’s on October 29, 1997. S/Insp. Mark Saunders told reporters that the Cold Case Squad had arrested a serial killer. In January, Windsor police had charged MacDonald again in Charette’s death.
The Windsor Star reported that MacDonald, in a July interview from a Toronto jail, claimed his innocence. It said he told the paper he was not responsible for any of the murders he was accused of, including the one for which he was serving a life sentence. “I’ve always been accused of this and that,” he said.
On July 16, 2011, the Crown withdrew the three first-degree murder charges. The Ontario attorney general’s office said there was no longer a reasonable prospect of conviction, the Canadian Press reported. MacDonald’s lawyer, Breese Davies, said the decision showed police never should have laid the charges. The Canadian Press described Campbell as MacDonald’s “casual sex partner.” It reported that MacDonald would be eligible for parole in that case in 2017 and was due to stand trial in October for Charette’s death.
Vital statistics
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | James Thomas (Jimmy) Campbell; spelled Jimmie in the Toronto Star |
| Age | 63 |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Retired worker, Canada Packers Ltd. |
| Date of death | April 29, 2000 |
| Manner of death | Strangulation (neck compression, possibly manual strangulation) |
| Location | 99 Tyndall Ave., Parkdale, Toronto |
| Accused | Peter Dale MacDonald, 42 when charged in June 2001 |
| Charge | First-degree murder; committal quashed April 30, 2004 and replaced with second-degree murder |
| Defence counsel | John M. Rosen and Heather Pringle (2004 appeal); P. Andras Schreck and Sam Scratch (2008 appeal) |
| Crown counsel | Jamie C. Klukach (2004 appeal); J. Klukach (2008 appeal) |
| Verdict | Second-degree murder (convicted 2004, per the Windsor Star) |
| Sentence | Life; eligible for parole in 2017, per the Canadian Press |
Sources
- The Globe and Mail, May 3, 2000, p. A21
- Toronto Star, May 4, 2000, p. B5
- The Globe and Mail, June 26, 2001
- Toronto Star, June 26, 2001, p. B5
- R. v. MacDonald (P.D.), [2004] O.A.C. Uned. 263 (Ont. C.A., April 30, 2004)
- R. v. MacDonald (P.D.), 2008 ONCA 572 (Ont. C.A., August 1, 2008)
- Windsor Star, October 29, 2010
- Toronto Star, October 29, 2010 (online)
- Toronto Police Service, “Alleged serial killer arrested” (web page)
- The Canadian Press, via CP24, July 16, 2011
- Toronto telephone directory listing, James Campbell, 99 Tyndall Ave.
Murder Village Map