EDITOR'S NOTE: A retired judge and author, Norman Douglas was the Crown Attorney who prosecuted one of the most infamous crimes in Sault Ste. Marie history: the murder of 14-year-old Patrizia Mastroianni inside a Korah Collegiate bathroom in 1987. He wrote the following column after reading a recent SooToday feature story about the killer's attempts to see the outside of prison. Douglas was also a recent guest on our Inside the Village podcast. The full episode can be found HERE.
In October 1987, I was the Crown Attorney in Sault Ste. Marie, having been a prosecutor for 14 years.
I received a call from the Sault Police that a 14-year old-student at Korah Collegiate had been brutally knifed to death in a washroom and that a 19-year-old former student had just been pulled from the St. Marys River and charged with first-degree murder.
That was the beginning of a long, sad story for many people, including me. My latest contact with this case was last week, on Aug. 25.
That was a phone call with Carmela Roznik, asking permission to write this column and include the picture of her, her sister Tiziana Palumbo, and me, taken five months ago at the Scripture Gift and Book Shop in the Sault.
Carmela was 17 years old and Tiziana was 11 when their sister Patrizia was murdered.
I met them, their parents and brother as I was preparing for the jury trial of Russell Colwell scheduled for January 1988.
Of the dozens of murder cases I have prosecuted, this was the only one in which I became friends with, and then kept in touch with, the victim’s family.
At the time, my wife Sue and I had 3 daughters as well — aged 11, 9 and 4. I spent many hours in their home as an honoured guest at their dinner table, and my daughters played together with Tiziana over that 1988 summer.
I wrote about the trial and conviction of Colwell in my book, You Be The Judge.
The community was outraged and crowds lined up to get a seat. If I had not grown up in that friendly, neighbourly city, I might have mistook them for a lynch mob.
But their concern was not for the accused. They kept their anger in check in a show of support for the Mastroiannis and a respect for the court. They represented the sadness for what had happened to all of us. And I’m sure some were praying for the Colwell family as well.
Colwell was ably represented by one of the best defence lawyers in Ontario: Roy Youngson. He had a fair trial by a well-respected Superior Court Judge and a jury of his peers.
But now I need to address the sentence he received.
The longest sentence available in Canada — I deliberately do not use the adjective "harshest" — is life imprisonment. It rarely means "life" (unless the convicted person dies in prison) and "imprisonment" often involves an apartment in a minimum-security facility with liberal day or weekend temporary passes.
The Correctional Service of Canada and the Parole Board of Canada operate on the presumption that gradual reintegration of the offender into society as a law-abiding citizen best meets the ultimate goal of protecting society.
Every murderer in Canada is eligible for full parole: in the case of second-degree murder, after serving 10 years in custody; and in first-degree murder, after serving 25 years (although there is a mechanism to apply for parole after serving 15 years).
I have prosecuted two people who were sentenced to life imprisonment, been paroled, and committed a second murder. Also in 1987, I had publicly debated defence lawyer Eddie Greenspan on capital punishment at the Marconi Hall in Sault Ste. Marie.
I think I would have had a stronger argument if the debate had taken place after Patrizia's brutal murder.
I have never read or heard a more eloquent, heart-wrenching victim impact statement than the one Carmela presented at Colwell's latest hearing before the Parole Board on March 28. Michael Friscolanti's excellent article on SooToday captured the emotion of that hearing, and the life-long ordeal (sentence) of the Mastroianni family.
Their plight is one of the reasons I believe in capital punishment, not for all, but for the worst cases of murder — the sex-slayer, the contract killer, the serial killer, the terrorist hostage killer.
I realize that this is a dead(!) issue in Canada, but maybe it's time we considered the option of "life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.”
Consider Colwell's long journey through the criminal justice system.
1) Oct 14, 1987: He stalks, murders and masturbates on a 14-year-old girl in a school washroom.
2) January 1988: He pleads not guilty of first-degree murder and attempts to mitigate his crime due to a mental health issue. He is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole eligibility until he has served 25 years in prison.
3) During the 1990s he is placed in segregation for repeatedly exposing himself to female staff.
4) 2010: He loses his cleaning job at a medium-security institution for locking himself in a women's washroom.
5) 2012: A prison report expresses concern about his preoccupations related to sexual offending.
6) 2014: He applies for day parole and is denied because of the ongoing risk he poses to society.
7) 2021: He applies for full parole and is denied, still considered a danger to society.
8) 2023: He is transferred to a minimum-security institution.
9) November 2023: He applies for temporary escorted absence from prison.
10) March 28, 2024: The Parole Board denies his request for a temporary absence.
11) May 28, 2024: He appeals the denial; decision still pending.
Now consider the Mastroianni family's journey, which included travelling to Kingston to appear before the Parole Board, pleading to keep their sister’s killer locked up.
Carmela refers to it as their life sentence.
On April 3 to 4, 2024, I was enjoying a momentous weekend. I had driven to Wawa and the Sault from my home in Collingwood for three book signings. It was during the second one on the Saturday morning when I was shocked. I had not seen Carmela or Tiziana in 35 years.
As I was chatting with the people who had lined up, I glanced at the next two women in line and was stunned — it hit me right away who they were. The photo accompanying this column says it all.
No family should have to endure what the Mastroiannis have been through. They have been living with the nightmare, not only of the killing, but of the possibility that Colwell may be released some day. Why? Because our system of justice puts its spotlight on the plight of the convicted killer. It ignores the plight of the victims who deserve the small comfort that they will never have to run into the man in the mall who has tortured them all their lives.
The answer to this injustice? Move the spotlight.