'Right verdict': Landlord found not guilty of murdering his tenant
Midland man, accused of second-degree murder of Orillia native, walks free after three-week trial; 'it was just a tragic set of circumstances,' says lawyer
Rick Patrick walked out of the Barrie courthouse a free man Friday evening after being found not guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Christopher Forrester.
“I appreciate it but not now, sorry,” said an emotional Patrick, when he was asked for comment shortly after leaving the courtroom.
Patrick soon stepped outside into cold, windy conditions — almost identical to those on the night Forrester died nine days before Christmas in 2021 — and drove off into the night.
“It was absolutely the right verdict,” said Parick’s defence lawyer, Alison Craig. “…just a tragic set of circumstances that (got us here).”
Ten members of Forrester’s family were on hand for the verdict, including his mother, father and both of his brothers. They did not make any comments but were clearly upset as they passed by Patrick when leaving the courtroom.
Three members of the jury could be seen wiping away tears. Justice Clyde Smith, who had presided over the three-week trial in Superior Court, dismissed the panel soon after.
It was never in doubt that the then 65-year-old killed Forrester, a 36-year-old Orillia native who had been living in Patrick’s trailer, after stabbing him once in his driveway on Galloway Boulevard in Midland.
The Crown was attempting to prove the retired Midland man had the requisite intent for second-degree murder, or failing that higher bar, the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Forrester’s gloves were found at the scene, a model of which an Ontario Provincial Police officer testified were not permitted by the force because they are known to cause injury. A few days later, wire cutters were also found a short distance away by a crime scene technician; they apparently were bought there by the deceased on the night in question.
Despite his dying declaration to the same OPP officer who found the gloves that he “just wanted to talk” to Patrick, it suggested that Forrester may have had ill-intent when he arrived at Patrick’s residence, which was a short distance from the trailer.
Patrick was on the stand for two days and maintained that he arrived home on a cold, windy evening and was attacked by Forrester, who he said had his arm raised. Patrick testified that he scrambled to grab a knife that he had been carrying for protection.
“I could feel the cold steel of the blade,” Patrick testified, but he claimed to remember little of the fatal encounter because of how fast it happened.
The Crown had a difficult case. The agreed facts in the case and other exhibits such as the 911 calls not only detailed the sad ending of Forrester’s life just before Christmas three years ago, but it also offered a template for Patrick’s defence.
Every time Crown attorney Dennis Chronopoulos tried to use the prolonged landlord-tenant dispute as Patrick’s motive of ill-intent, it also showed evidence of Forrester’s declining mental health.
Those struggles were originally ruled out by Smith, but the Crown’s own evidence brought it back in. Smith reversed his earlier decision mid-trial and eventually allowed Craig to cite Forrester’s mental state as a contributing factor why her client feared him.
Forrester had a criminal record for assaulting a woman that led directly to him being kicked out of his previous accommodation at a Fesserton hotel. He moved into Patrick’s trailer but soon stopped paying rent and displayed increasingly bizarre behaviour, court heard. By the end of his life, he was suspected in multiple acts of vandalism to Patrick’s property and had a warrant out for his arrest.
It wasn’t always that way between the two former friends. Forrester’s social media accounts made their friendship plain, not least was one Facebook post from March 2020. In that post, Forrester details his struggles finding suitable accommodation after a stint in hospital and right around the time he pleaded guilty to the assault charge.
“Successful future ahead,” was the first response to his post.
It was from Rick Patrick, who 21 months later killed him with a knife that Forrester had given him for Christmas.