Mississauga woman denied bail while awaiting second murder trial in notorious Peel case
A Mississauga mother of six has been denied bail and will remain behind bars while awaiting a second trial for the alleged first-degree murders of her ex-husband, Caleb Harrison, and his mother, Bridget Harrison.
The decision, delivered Wednesday by a Superior Court judge in Brampton, is the latest development in a disturbing case that has spanned more than a decade, in which three members of the same family were found dead in their home years apart.
The accused, Melissa Merritt, 42, walked into the courtroom smiling Wednesday morning and listened intently from the prisoner's box as Judge Jennifer Woollcombe read a lengthy decision. Merritt wiped tears from her eyes as it became clear she would not be released from jail. When it was over, she was led out in handcuffs.
Woollcombe's reasons cannot be reported due to a standard publication ban intended to protect the rights of an accused person to a fair trial.
The ruling comes three months after the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned Merritt's first-degree murder conviction for the killing of her ex-husband, and ordered a new trial. In a unanimous ruling, the appeal court said the trial judge made two errors in his instructions to the jury regarding key evidence before members delivered a guilty verdict.
After the months-long murder trial in 2018, a jury found Merritt guilty of killing Caleb Harrison, while a mistrial was declared on her first-degree murder charge in Bridget's death when the jury couldn't reach a unanimous verdict. At the time, the Crown stayed that charge, meaning prosecutors did not intend to retry Merritt for Bridget's murder.
Since the appeal court ruling in January, however, Merritt has been charged again with the first-degree murders of both Caleb and Bridget - this time by direct indictment, which means this time the case will go to trial without a preliminary hearing.
All three members of the Harrison family died in their Mississauga home on Pitch Pine Crescent over four and a half years, from 2009 to 2013. The bail decision comes at a painful time for their surviving relatives, with this month marking the anniversary of Bill Harrison's sudden death on April 16, 2009, and Bridget's murder on April 21, 2010. Police did not investigate the deaths as homicides until after their 40-year-old son, Caleb Harrison, was murdered on Aug. 23, 2013.
A 2018 Toronto Star investigation documented the failures of Peel police, coroners and pathologists in the first two death probes.
Merritt has been incarcerated since January 2014, when she and her then-partner, Christopher Fattore, now 45, were arrested and charged with murdering all three members of her ex-husband's family. She was discharged in Bill's death after a preliminary inquiry.
The Harrisons were murdered at key moments in a bitter custody battle over Merritt and Caleb's two children. Bill died the same day Merritt and Fattore fled Ontario with the Harrison children, contravening a court order that gave the grandparents their son's share of custody while he was incarcerated. Bridget died the day before she was to give a victim impact statement at Merritt's parental abduction trial, at a time when Bridget had sole interim custody. Caleb died the night before a 50-50 summer custody split with Merritt was to revert to sole custody for him.
At the first trial, prosecutors argued Merritt and Fattore plotted together to kill her former spouse and his mother, while Fattore alone committed the acts. Both pleaded not guilty. Merritt's lawyer argued there was no evidence she killed, or plotted to kill, anyone. Fattore had confessed to killing Bridget and Caleb after his arrest, saying Merritt knew nothing about it, but he later recanted.
At trial, Fattore denied killing Bridget and testified that he did not intend to kill Caleb, only to rough him up" - a claim the jury didn't buy. Fattore was found guilty for the murders of Bridget and Caleb, and not guilty for the second-degree murder of Bill. Merritt and Fattore were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years.
Merritt's verdict in Caleb's death was overturned on appeal earlier this year. This is not a case where the evidence is so overwhelming that a reasonable and properly instructed jury would inevitably have convicted,' " Justice David Paciocco wrote for a unanimous three-judge Ontario Court of Appeal panel.
Merritt maintains her innocence in the deaths of Caleb and Bridget, and is thrilled" by the appeal court's ruling, one of her appeal lawyers, Mark Halfyard, said after the verdict. Winning her appeal is just one step - albeit a significant one - towards finally clearing her name," Halfyard said.
Joel Hechter, who represented Merritt in her 2018 murder trial and the bail hearing, declined to comment on Wednesday's decision.
A new trial has been scheduled for January 2024.
With files from Jacques Gallant
Amy Dempsey is senior writer for the Star, based in Ottawa. Follow her on Twitter: @amydempsey