London man, 39, pleads guilty in mother’s stabbing death

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Just hours before her son stabbed fatally her, Carolyn Carter called London police help removing him from her home.

The 69-year-old retired teacher had suffered a debilitating stroke eight months before her death. But she was able to stay in her Redoak Avenue home near London’s Oakridge neighbourhood thanks to a personal support worker.

What she didn’t want that day was for her son, Jonathan Halfyard, to be at the house. He had moved out shortly before that fateful morning.

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Officers responding to the family dispute call found Halfyard sleeping in the basement. He was asked to leave and he did “without issue,” as was described in an agreed statement of facts presented to Superior Court Justice Michael Carnegie this week.

But hours later he came back and stabbed his mother several times with a serrated knife, including delivering a mortal wound to her neck, and left her in the hallway to die. Her support worker, who later arrived to give Carter physiotherapy, found her face-down in a large pool of blood.

Halfyard, 39, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder of the mother of three, a grandmother or two and an accomplished teacher for 25 years. His sentencing has been slated for December.

Carnegie heard through the agreed statement of facts about the troubling lead-up to Carter’s homicide and Halfyard’s unsophisticated efforts to cover his tracks.

London police asked Halfyard to leave the house at about 11 a.m. on April 20, 2023. An hour later, he was spotted on video surveillance returning, pushing a shopping cart and walking to the back of the house. He was spotted leaving again at 12:15 p.m.

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Carter left the house at 12:27 p.m. with the assistance of a medical transport vehicle to meet with her lawyer. Halfyard returned to Carter’s house again some time between 1:38 p.m. and 4:14 p.m., when neighbourhood surveillance cameras caught him leaving the house.

Carter returned home at 2:30 p.m. Between then and when he left, Halfyard attacked his mother with the knife.

The support worker found Carter’s body just before 4:30 p.m. and called 911. When police and paramedics arrived they found her on the floor, covered with two blankets and a dresser tilted over her. She was pronounced dead at the house and the court statement noted that “her injuries were so extensive there was no attempt to resuscitate Ms. Carter.”

Along with the fatal wound to the neck, an autopsy showed Carter suffered multiple stab wounds including cuts to her right hand and wrist, indicating defensive injuries.

Several civilian witnesses and neighbourhood doorbell and security cameras helped police piece together Halfyard’s movements after he murdered his mother. He was caught on camera leaving the house wearing a dark jacket with yellow “high visibility” markings. Twenty minutes later, a camera caught him in the neighbourhood wearing a black jacket with grey markings.

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That piece of footage showed him opening the door of a dump truck belonging to a private business and placing a bag inside. Police contacted the company and the driver passed on the contents of the bag: a sweatshirt and the same reflective jacket Halfyard was wearing when he left his mother’s home.

Evidence of Carter’s blood was found on the jacket’s sleeve, while Halfyard’s DNA was discovered on the collar.

A witness followed Halfyard and saw him put something under a vehicle parked in a driveway. More camera surveillance picked up Halfyard wearing a Chicago Blackhawks hockey jersey with the number 11 on the back and carrying a white, reusable grocery bag.

At 6 p.m, he was arrested wearing the hockey jersey near Riverside Drive and Forest Street. He was searched and police found two knife handles with the blades broken off in his pockets.

Two other witnesses reported that a man identified later as Halfyard was seen throwing clothing and objects into two ponds. Two days after Carter was killed, a police officer using a metal detector found two knife blades, both without handles in a pond.

The serrated blades were found to match the handles found on Halyard at the time of his arrest. They were compared to Carter’s injuries during the autopsy and “one of the blades was noted as aligning closely with the marks on the deceased.”

Halfyard’s sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 2.

He still faces other charges in the Ontario Court of Justice and is expected to make an appearance on Oct. 2. They’re connected to the alleged random assault of an outreach worker, which occurred one month before Carter was killed.

jsims@postmedia.com

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