Woman accused of first

May 28, 2023

A woman accused of killing a St. Albert senior told the jury in her first-degree murder trial Monday that she was set up to take the blame for the man's death.

Beryl Musila gave an opening statement as she began calling evidence in her own defence, offering an alternate theory to Crown prosecutors' allegations that Musila drugged, beat and fatally stabbed 75-year-old Ronald Worsfold in July 2017, when she was living with him in his St. Albert apartment.

"I stand here before you falsely accused of the murder of Ronald Worsfold," Musila, 34, told the jury.

Musila, who has no lawyer and is representing herself, has cross-examined many of the Crown's dozens of witnesses herself and has often been soft-spoken.

During her opening statement to the jury Monday, she spoke clearly and emphatically.

"Someone hated Ronald Worsfold and myself, but I never believed things would come down to a murder," Musila said.

She also offered her theory of the murder: that someone had been targeting her and Worsfold in the days leading up to Worsfold's death, and that the same person framed her for the crime.

"The person responsible for Ronald Worsfold's murder took careful and well-planned steps to ensure I took the fall for Ronald Worsfold's murder," she said.

At the beginning of the trial, Musila pleaded guilty to the charge of indecent interference with Worsfold's remains. The jury has heard evidence that Worsfold's body was placed in a Rubbermaid storage bin and transported to several locations

On Monday, she told the jury that deciding to move Worsfold's body is "a decision I regret every day of my life."

She added that she wasn't being truthful when she confessed to killing Worsfold after her arrest in 2017.

"I tried taking responsibility for a crime I did not commit," she said.

Musila called herself as her own first witness, offering an account of the days leading up to the killing that differs from what the jury has previously heard.

Lawyer Greg Worobec asked Musila questions as she testified. Worobec is the court-appointed amicus — a friend of the court — whose role is to ensure the trial runs fairly.

Earlier in the trial, prosecutors showed the jury videos of interviews Musila did with RCMP officers both before and after her arrest in 2017. In the videos, Musila tells police she had a sexual relationship with Worsfold, and that Robert Rafters, who prosecutors allege was her boyfriend at the time, was jealous.

In one of Musila's interviews with police, she told an investigator that she killed Worsfold at Rafters' behest because he said he would kill her if she didn't do it.

But on Monday, Musila denied that she and Worsfold ever had a sexual relationship, and said they were just close friends. She said that while she originally lived in a separate unit in the building Worsfold managed, she'd moved in with him by July 2017.

She said they often liked to go for drives together, and that on the evening of July 7, 2017, they went to a sex store together because Worsfold thought it would be good for her to purchase some items.

"I was going through a difficult time where I was struggling with my self-esteem," she said.

After the two returned to the apartment, Musila said Worsfold went to bed, but she became alarmed when she thought she saw someone behaving suspiciously near the building.

She said they'd been having issues with break and enters, and several days earlier, she and Worsfold had emptied his safe of a coin collection and other items and moved it to a storage unit.

She said she went outside to look around and ended up locking herself out of the building. She said a neighbour helped her get back in, and that they drank and did cocaine together.

She said she asked the man to leave after he hit on her, and that she then fell asleep.

Earlier in the trial, the neighbour testified Musila told him Worsfold was out of town when he said he was concerned about doing drugs in his landlord's unit.

Musila told the jury she didn't realize Worsfold was dead until the next morning, when she woke to the sound of Worsfold's daughter yelling from outside that building, telling her to get out of her father's unit.

Musila said she panicked when she discovered Worsfold deceased with clearly visible injuries.

She said Rafters came to the apartment and helped her load Worsfold's body into the storage bin, and that she packed up and left with her belongings.

Her testimony about travelling to different locations with the bin and other belongings largely aligns with what other witnesses told the jury, but Musila added that she believes at one point some of her boxes disappeared and other items were added to her belongings without her knowledge.

Crown prosecutors began cross-examining Musila Monday, and will continue to question her when the trial resumes Tuesday.

Reporter

Paige Parsons is a reporter with CBC Edmonton. She has specialized in justice issues and city hall, but now covers anything from politics to rural culture. She previously worked for the Edmonton Journal. She can be reached at [email protected].