Victoria (Tori) Stafford, 8 - Canada, Murdered. The trial of Michael Rafferty

[Jezreel]

Crown should wrap up their closing today and hopefully the Judge will start on his charge to the jury, which has been said could take more than a day. The jury should be in deliberation by end of day Thursday or Friday. Sounds to me as the crown is doing a great job with their closing so far, I hope the jury see it the same way.

LFP - Michael Rafferty's voice filled the courtroom as the images played on the computer screens.

"My girlfriend, no . . ." he said of Terri-Lynne McClintic as the screen showed a photo he took of her in a hotel room.

"I don't know what I was doing" April 8, 2009, he said, as the screen played a video of his car, or one looking a lot like it, driving up the street outside the school of Victoria (Tori) Stafford that very day.

"I've never gone anywhere with her," Rafferty said, as a video showed him and McClintic at a Guelph Home Depot.

" . . . because you uh know you want to help . . . " he said, explaining why he kept his ears open for word of the missing eight-year-old Tori.

Is that so? Crown attorney Kevin Gowdey wondered in court Tuesday after that last bit of an audio-visual show was done.

Rafferty's words came from the audiotaped May 15, 2009, interview he had with police.

"It was the perfect opportunity to do the moral thing, the right thing to do, to tell them all about what Ms. McClintic had done..." Gowdey said. Instead, he lied, the Crown said.

With a combination of visual aids, drama and a methodical laying out of facts, Gowdey began the Crown's closing arguments Tuesday in Rafferty's first-degree murder trial.

The argument: Rafferty was no "innocent dupe" and McClintic was not, as the defence suggests, "the engine" behind the kidnapping, sexual assault and killing of the eight-year-old school girl.

Instead, Rafferty used his "violent pawn" of a girlfriend, McClintic, to get him a girl, buy the murder weapons with cash he gave her, keep the girl hidden when he had to leave the car, and help clean up and cover up the murder.

"He was leading the events of April 8 from start to finish and he completely controlled what happened after April 8," Gowdey said.

He reminded jurors they only have to find one of three things true to convict Rafferty of first-degree murder; that the kidnapping or rape of Tori resulted in her death, or that the killing was pre-planned.

"We say he is guilty of all," Gowdey told the jury.

His measured delivery gave a sombre tone to the arguments, and put in highlighted contrast his occasional bit of drama.

About 4:30 p.m. April 8, a worried Tara McDonald, Tori's mother, wondered if something had happened to her, Gowdey said.

"Indeed something was terribly wrong. At that very moment, about 4:30, Victoria Elizabeth Stafford was lying on the floor . . .," Gowdey said, and turned suddenly to point with both hands at Rafferty in the prisoner's dock ". . . of this man's car."

He quickly dismissed one of the defence's main arguments, that McClintic is such a violent liar her story can't be trusted.

"There is no question from time to time you are going to find she lied in her evidence," he said.

Even so, the defence never attacked "her evidence in any significant way," Gowdey said.

Rafferty at times rolled his eyes, scowled or muttered to himself during Gowdey's closing.

Tori's family had a different reaction. Aunt Rebecca Nichols, an Alberta resident, sobbed during one recess after seeing and hearing some evidence for the first time. Tori's dad Rodney Stafford left early, telling reporters if he sat in court any longer, he'd have an "outburst."

Rafferty, 31, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault causing bodily harm.

McClintic, 21, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2010 and testified against Rafferty. She told police in 2009 Rafferty directed the kidnapping, raped Tori and killed her, but at his trial, said she killed Tori.

Gowdey told jurors yesterday in a legal sense it doesn't matter who dealt the fatal blows.

"Michael Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic were in this together. Together they did this to Tori Stafford. Together they are guilty."

The Crown presented its case in 12 chapters and Gowdey worked his way through seven Tuesday. Here are some of his major points:

Rafferty picked up McClintic and drove by Tori's school, the second time that day, before getting enough gas for a long trip out of Woodstock.

He then dropped McClintic off and parked up the street, hidden in a nursing home parking lot, with quick access to Hwy. 401.

If Rafferty really believed he was innocently picking up a child McClintic knew, as the defence suggested, why wouldn't he just park across the street from the school, Gowdey asked.

And why did he continue driving a girl to Guelph, who undoubtedly would have asked where they were going and why? Gowdey asked.

"When does the light go on for Mr Rafferty? Why would he not just turn the car around . . . unless he had evil intentions."

The intentions became clear in Guelph, Gowdey said. Rafferty took out cash from an ATM and gave it to McClintic. She used that money to buy the "murder tools": a hammer and garbage bags.

Just as when he parked on Fyfe Ave., he let McClintic expose herself to the danger of being caught and kept himself hidden and ready to drive away if need be, Gowdey said.

"Just because Mr. Rafferty is staying safely out of the picture, that doesn't mean he isn't controlling exactly what is going on."

Then he drove on to Mount Forest, with an eight-year-old girl he did not know in the backseat and murder tools in the trunk.

"No law-abiding person would continue . . . but on they went," Gowdey said.

McClintic didn't know the area, and in fact had trouble finding it later for police. Rafferty knew the area, 130 km away from Woodstock, and chose a spot unseen from the road, Gowdey said.

"Getting as far out of town was the best plan of all and that is exactly what they did."

The reason McClintic was able to observe so much of the scene, giving police detailed descriptions of silos and woods and rockpiles is because she wasn't the one busy raping Tori, he said.

McClintic testified Tori asked for help at a break in that rape, but she delivered the girl back to Rafferty.

"It is detail that could not make Ms. McClintic look any worse as a human being. You do not make that up," he said.

McClintic testified Tori had no clothing on her lower body as she was raped, only a shirt on top. Sure enough, that is how her body was found months later, Gowdey noted.

The rocks that were put on Tori's body were heavy, "clearly a two-person job," he said.

In his May 15 interview with police, Rafferty appeared forceful and confident.

"The lies just roll of his tongue."



As Tori's father has to leaves court because he just couldn't take anymore of listening to his daughters last hours as they must have been frightfully horrendous, her Aunt cries while hearing the evidence and seeing the autopsy photos of her niece after being found in the fetal position, Rafferty mutters and scowls - nice one!
Some articles state that when Gowdy was saying if the back seat wasn’t in the car and this was an innocent ride, where was Victoria sitting, Rafferty mouthed “Oh my God”. Also that when Gowdy was showing the autopsy photos one lady juror was close to tears. There are 7 women and 3 men on this jury, which could lead me to believe that they may well (hopefully) be thinking the same as the majority that he is in fact guilty on all charges (fingers crossed).