Stepfather tells court of attack

Stepfather tells court of attack
`You're trying to kill me,' man told stepson
Slipped out of jeans to escape attack with bat
Dec. 13, 2005. 01:00 AM
PETER SMALL
STAFF REPORTER
A burly cook fought tears yesterday as he described
how his teenaged stepson grabbed him and urged
another boy to "kill him, kill him" with a baseball bat.
"I said, `Jesus Christ, I'm going to die. What's going
to happen to my wife?'" the 43-year-old man testified
in the youths' murder trial.
The man is the stepfather of 12-year-old "Johnathan,"
who was found on Nov. 25, 2003, in the basement
crawl space of their east Toronto home with 71 cut,
hack or stab wounds to his 100-pound body.
Johnathan's older brother, now 18, and two
17-year-old friends have pleaded not guilty to
first-degree murder in his death.
One of the 17-year-olds and the stepson have also
pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder the
stepfather as he returned home from work that
day. They cannot be named by law.
The stepfather testified that he didn't get along
with the eldest stepson.
Shortly before Johnathan's death, the stepfather
and the boys' natural mother had disciplined the
moody and difficult elder son by barring him from
using the family computer, his favourite activity,
he told youth court.
The stepfather, a cook at a restaurant, arrived
home from work about 5 p.m. on Nov. 25.
He didn't know Johnathan had been killed
minutes earlier.
He parked in the back and noticed someone
switch the lights off as he approached.
He saw Johnathan's brother, then 16, looking
out from a ground-floor window.
The stepfather motioned him to open the
back door.
But the 6 foot tall, 250-pound boy blocked his
stepfather — equally heavy but three inches
shorter — from entering.
The stepfather smelled cigarette smoke,
forbidden in the home, he testified.
"I said, `You smell like smoke.'
" The stepson said the smell came from friends
smoking at school.
After a few minutes, the man said, he brushed
by his stepson and saw another youth coming
down the stairs.
It was against house rules for his kids to have
guests without a parent present, he said.
"I said, `What are you doing in my house?'
He said. `I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' I said, `For what?'"
The youth left by the front door, he said.
Then he saw a third youth, a pal of his
stepson's, he said.
The irate stepfather went to the living room to
phone his wife.
"(The stepson) reached over my shoulder and
he slapped his hand down on the phone.
He cut off the call.
"I said, `What are you doing?' He lunged at me
with a knife."
The knife cut through the man's winter jacket
and scratched his chest, he said.
"I thought the knife went through my chest,"
he said, wiping his eyes.
The two wrestled as the stepfather struggled to
exit out back, he said.
"I said, `You're trying to kill me.'
He said, `Yes, that's what I want to do.'"
The stepson yelled to his friend, who was standing
by the front door with a baseball bat.
"He said, `Kill him. Kill him,'" he recalled.
The youth hit him repeatedly on the head as he
tried to fend off the blows, he said.
"I said (to the youth), `I've never done anything
to you.' He said, `I'm sorry. I'm sorry.'"
At that point, he said, he started fighting back,
making his way to the front door, with his
stepson holding on.
"I screamed for someone to help me.
I said, `Please help. They're trying to kill me.'"
At that point, he recalled the stepson saying,
"`Jesus Christ. He's getting away.'"
He managed to open the door, slipping out of
his jeans to escape. He yelled at a passing woman
to call police and made his way to the safety of
his neighbours.
The trial continues today.
It's hell being a stepparent but can you imagine
the poor mother?