Early on Friday, October 26, 1979, the building superintendent let a 15-year-old girl into her brother’s apartment on Ontario Street. The Globe and Mail reported that she had failed to reach him by telephone. She found the body of James Edward Downing, 23, lying on a bed. Police said he had died of a stab wound in the lungs.
Downing worked as a night cleaner at the College Street YMCA, the Globe reported. The Toronto Star later gave the date of the killing as Thursday, October 25.
The Sunday Star of October 28 carried his death notice. It named his mother, Mrs. Viola Downing, and two sisters. The funeral was set for Monday at Regent Park United Church on Oak Street, with burial at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
On Monday, October 29, the Star reported that Metro police had arrested a man that day. Police said Downing was stabbed in the back during an argument. They charged James Gordon Donald Ashley, listed as having no fixed address, with second-degree murder.
Ashley was 22 when he went to trial before a jury in the Ontario Supreme Court. He pleaded not guilty. On April 30, 1980, Crown attorney Paul Culver gave the jury his opening address.
Culver said the two men were casual friends and that Downing had once borrowed between $200 and $400 from Ashley. On October 25, he said, Ashley went to Downing’s apartment and decided to take the stereo as collateral for the debt, or in place of it. The Star’s report said the jury heard that Downing was stabbed while trying to prevent the removal of his most prized possession, a $2,000 stereo set. By the Canada Inflation Calculator’s reading of Statistics Canada’s price index, $2,000 in 1979 had the purchasing power of about $6,300 in 2018.
Ashley was taking the set apart when Downing came home, Culver said. An argument began and became a fight. Downing was stabbed in the back. Culver said the knife went in to the hilt with enough force to break off the handle. The blade was six and a half inches long, the Star reported.
Downing was left bleeding on the bedroom floor, Culver said. Ashley kept taking the stereo apart and eventually got a friend to take it to an apartment on Wellesley Street East, where police found it later. Culver said Ashley calmly listened to records while Downing was dying. He told the jury that Ashley later admitted to police his part in the death.
On Thursday, May 1, Inspector Ron Meadows of Metro police testified about Ashley’s arrest. Ashley at first made no mention of his involvement in Downing’s death, Meadows said. Then his hands began sweating heavily, and he blurted out that Downing was a beautiful guy. “I loved him,” he said, according to Meadows. Ashley asked to be charged with first-degree murder and put away.
Asked whether he and Downing had been lovers, Ashley answered yes and said he was bisexual, Meadows told the court. Culver had called the two men casual friends the day before.
Meadows said Ashley told him Downing had borrowed money from him to buy a pound of marijuana. Ashley wanted it back because he needed the money to go to the United States. Downing said he could not repay it for at least a month, and Ashley decided to take the $2,000 stereo until the debt was settled. An argument became a fight. Ashley told Meadows he remembered being in the kitchen area and must have grabbed the knife there, and that he guessed he did it after Downing went into the bedroom. Meadows said Ashley had tears in his eyes and appeared upset.
Jennifer MacDonald, Ashley’s girlfriend, testified that Ashley admitted causing Downing’s death and then talked about the money Downing owed him. She said she asked whether he had killed for that, and he answered yes. The Star reported that Ashley had told her the debt was $200.
Sergeant Victor Reid testified that Ashley asked him whether Canada still had hanging. Reid said he told Ashley it did not. Ashley replied that he should be put away for a long time, Reid said.
On Monday, May 5, Ashley testified that Downing’s death was an accident. He said he had lent Downing $300 to buy marijuana, then decided he needed the money back and went to the apartment to collect it. During that day, he said, he could have had 20 bottles of beer and five to seven marijuana cigarettes, and he felt pleasantly high when he arrived. Downing told him he would have no money for a while, Ashley said, so he decided to take the stereo as collateral and an argument started. It became a pushing match. He said the two men slipped and Downing fell on top of him.
Ashley said he did not know where the knife came from. When he saw the handle sticking out of Downing’s back, he said, he could not believe it. When he could not feel a pulse, he said, he panicked. Culver suggested to him that the knife had magically pushed itself into Downing’s body. Ashley said he did not know how that had happened.
The Star reported that Downing died of a six-inch knife wound that cut through a rib and entered the tip of his right lung. Pathologist Hans Sepp testified that Downing could have been propelled onto the knife if it had been propped at an angle and held rigidly in place. Sepp said it was quite possible that Downing was stabbed from behind while standing.
The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for less than three hours, the Star reported on May 7, and found Ashley guilty of second-degree murder. Mr. Justice Coulter Osborne called the verdict reasoned and reasonable on the evidence. He sentenced Ashley to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 10 years. The judge could have raised that period by as much as 15 years, the Star said, but the jury made no recommendation to do so. He said 10 years, however it is measured, is a long time.
The Star reported that members of Ashley’s family cried on one side of the courtroom when the verdict was read, and that members of Downing’s family smiled on the other. As Ashley was led out, one of Downing’s sisters called out goodbye.
The Star’s reports kept to the language of friendship. Culver and the Star’s May 6 report called the two men casual friends. The headlines on MacDonald’s testimony and on the sentence called Downing a pal. The report of the sentence described him as a friend killed in a fight over a $300 debt. Ashley’s statement that he and Downing had been lovers appeared in the Star’s May 2 account of Meadows’s testimony. The Star’s reports of Ashley’s own testimony and of the sentence did not repeat it.
Vital statistics
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | James Edward Downing (Globe and Mail); James E. Downing (Star death notice) |
| Age | 23 |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Night cleaner, College Street YMCA |
| Date of death | October 25, 1979 (the Star’s death notice gives Thursday, October 26, but October 25 was the Thursday) |
| Manner of death | Stab wound |
| Location | His apartment, Ontario Street, Toronto |
| Accused | James Ashley, 22 (James Gordon Donald Ashley in the Star, October 29, 1979) |
| Charge | Second-degree murder |
| Crown counsel | Paul Culver |
| Judge | Mr. Justice Coulter Osborne |
| Verdict | Guilty of second-degree murder |
| Sentence | Life in prison, no eligibility for parole for 10 years (reported May 7, 1980) |
Sources
- The Globe and Mail, October 27, 1979, p. 14
- Toronto Star, October 28, 1979, p. C18
- Toronto Star, October 29, 1979, p. A3
- Toronto Star, May 1, 1980, p. A14
- Toronto Star, May 2, 1980, p. C19
- Toronto Star, May 6, 1980, p. A4
- Toronto Star, May 7, 1980, p. D25
- Canada Inflation Calculator, FinanceRef (Alioth Finance), CA$2,000 in 1979 to 2018, page dated March 16, 2018
Ashley s
Murder Village Map