At 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday, May 23, 2000, a Toronto police cruiser spotted a black 1998 Volvo near police headquarters at Bay and College streets. The Toronto Star reported that the driver ran when he saw the cruiser. Officers stopped him a few blocks away, at Toronto General Hospital, at University Avenue and Gerrard Street West.
Constables Jason Keats and Payam Jamshidi boxed in the car with the help of other cruisers. According to court documents reported by the Star a year later, the driver said he had stolen the car. The officers asked where the owner was.
“I killed him,” the driver said.
They asked how.
“With the knife,” he said. He pointed to a black hunting knife on the car seat.
The driver was David Bruce Martin, 27, of no fixed address. What he told the officers sent them to the 14th floor of 5 Concorde Place, a high-rise condominium near Wynford Drive and the Don Valley Parkway in Don Mills. The Globe and Mail said the building had video cameras, round-the-clock guards and card-controlled entry. The Star reported no sign of forced entry to the unit.
Richard Kall, 45, was inside. The Star reported that he was pronounced dead at the scene, with obvious signs of trauma. Police would not say how he died. He was Toronto’s 25th homicide victim of the year, the Star said. Martin was charged with first-degree murder and dangerous driving.
Kall was the chief operating officer of the Ontario March of Dimes, a charity that supports people with physical disabilities. He had joined it in 1993 and became chief operating officer late in 1999, the Globe reported. He was a native of Niagara Falls. Co-workers said he was close to his brother there.
He held a master’s degree in business administration. He had worked for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and had taught business administration at Brock University in St. Catharines. Andria Spindel, who led the charity, told the Star that Kall could have earned more in the corporate world and chose work that made a difference.
Spindel told the Globe that the senior managers had gathered on Tuesday to plan three days of meetings Kall was to chair. When the news reached the table, she said, “everybody just broke down.” The Star wrote that his death left “a great hole in the heart” of his colleagues. “He never made an enemy, really,” Spindel told the Globe.
The Star’s report said Kall was found slain “after he went home with a man he met downtown.” Both papers noted that he was single. Gay Ottawa Now headed its report “Murder Follows Stroll in Toronto Hustler Area” and described the meeting as taking place in an area “known for prostitution and drugs.” It reported that Martin was married and known to police.
Police told the Globe that Kall knew the accused. Detective Rudy Pasini told the Star the two men met on Grenville Street, about a block from headquarters. “There is some indication that they were acquainted from previously,” he said. The Star put the meeting on Monday evening. On Thursday, the Globe reported that Constable Devin Kealey placed it on Sunday evening in the Bay and Grenville area. Kealey called Martin a street prostitute.
Police asked anyone who had seen Martin between 8 p.m. on Sunday and 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday to call the homicide squad. Detectives believed he had been driving Kall’s Volvo over an extended period, Gay Ottawa Now reported.
Martin appeared in a downtown Toronto courtroom on Thursday, April 26, 2001. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Mr. Justice David Watt sentenced him at once to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years.
The hearing rested on a joint statement of facts from the Crown and the defence. The Globe called it “a bare outline” of a case that “remains shrouded in mystery.” Kall’s family sat tight-lipped through the hearing, the Globe said. Prosecutor Sheila Cressman told reporters afterward, “I’m sorry, I really can’t say anything about it,” and said she was respecting the wishes of Kall’s relatives.
According to the Globe, the statement said Kall had bought sexual services from Martin “from time to time” and meant to do so again on May 21, when he picked him up on a downtown street corner and took him to the 14th-floor condominium. The Star reported that Kall had been Martin’s customer several times and had taken him to the condominium each time, where the two had sex. It placed the pickup in an area of downtown known as “Boystown.” Watt noted “no evidence of any animosity generated by these encounters.” Martin brought a knife.
Martin told investigators he had been bingeing on drugs and became enraged with Kall, the Globe reported. The Star described him as a cocaine and heroin addict who was high that day. In the Star’s account, the two men were having drinks when Martin pulled out the knife and stabbed Kall in the neck. Kall staggered backward.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m killing you,” Martin replied.
Martin stabbed Kall some 50 times, the Star said. The Globe said more than 50 times, with a hunting knife. The Star reported that Martin washed away the blood, emptied Kall’s wallet and drove back downtown to Bay Street, south of Wellesley Street. There he hired a prostitute and spent the rest of the money on crack cocaine. The Globe’s account has Martin taking money from Kall’s pocket, along with the keys to the Volvo. It said the statement of facts suggested robbery may have been one motive. Two days after the pickup, it said, Martin was arrested for dangerous driving and confessed.
The Star reported that Martin was a high school dropout with a substance abuse problem who had been in trouble with the law since his late teens. He had prior convictions for robbery and burglary. The Star called him a male prostitute “with a history of violence.”
Six victim-impact statements were filed, all from family and friends, the Star reported. They described Kall as a kindly, caring man who “loved life.” Watt called him “a very valuable, contributing member of society,” the Globe reported. Pasini told the Star in an interview afterward, “His death was a real tragedy. There was just no rhyme or reason for it.”
The Globe’s headline read “Prostitute admits to murder.” The Star’s subhead read “Prostitute high on drugs when he knifed client.” The Star called Kall “the bachelor.” The Globe called Martin a “gay prostitute.”
The March of Dimes set up a memorial fund in Kall’s name to help people with disabilities, the Star reported.
In July 2011, during Pride Month, Spindel, by then president and chief executive of March of Dimes Canada, wrote about Kall on the charity’s blog. She described him as “a big man with a big smile.” She wrote that he had not felt secure enough to come out to his friends and family. “His choices in his closeted life were surprisingly unwise given his overall intelligence,” she wrote. One night, she said, he took home “a drug-using ex-con” who robbed and killed him. She wrote that she had resolved to work to end the need for anyone to keep their sexuality secret.
March of Dimes Canada later established the Richard Kall Employee Award of Excellence. The recipient receives a commemorative award and a $500 education grant.
Vital statistics
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Richard Kall |
| Age | 45 |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Chief operating officer, Ontario March of Dimes |
| Date of death | May 21–23, 2000 (picked up Sunday evening, May 21; found Tuesday, May 23) |
| Manner of death | Stabbed |
| Location | 14th floor, 5 Concorde Place, Don Mills (called North York by the Star), Toronto |
| Accused | David Bruce Martin, 27 (28 in the Star’s 2001 report), of no fixed address |
| Charge | First-degree murder; dangerous driving |
| Crown counsel | Sheila Cressman |
| Judge | Mr. Justice David Watt |
| Verdict | Pleaded guilty to second-degree murder |
| Sentence | Life, no parole eligibility for 15 years, April 26, 2001 |
Sources
- The Globe and Mail, May 24, 2000, p. A3
- Toronto Star, May 24, 2000, pp. B1, B3
- Gay Ottawa Now, May 24, 2000 (online)
- The Globe and Mail, May 25, 2000, p. A21
- The Globe and Mail, April 27, 2001, p. A23
- Toronto Star, April 27, 2001, p. B3
- Andria Spindel, “Richard Kall Remembered,” March of Dimes Canada President’s Blog, July 19, 2011: https://modcpresidentblog.ca/2011/07/19/richard-kall-remembered/
- March of Dimes Canada, Richard Kall Employee Award of Excellence, form BD 00-00e, June 2014
Murder Village Map