The two people accused of killing Jagtar Gill were still in a relationship in the month she was found beaten and stabbed to death in her Ottawa home, according to the estranged husband of one of the accused.
Jason Ronald, the husband of Gurpreet Ronald, testified in an Ottawa courtroom Monday that the affair between his wife and Jagtar Gill’s husband, Bhupinderpal Gill, was still going on in late 2013 and January 2014.
When Jagtar Gill’s body was found in her Barrhaven home on Jan 29, 2014, Ronald said he knew police would have suspicions about his wife and her lover.
“I knew those two would be looked at,” Ronald told Ontario superior justice Julianne Parfett and the 12-person jury.
Gurpreet Ronald, 37, and Bhupinderpal Gill, 41, are both on trial for first-degree murder. The Crown alleges the two, who are both OC Transpo drivers and neighbours, were having an affair and conspired to kill his wife so they could be together.
The pair are being tried together but have separate defence teams. Gill said affair ended in 2013.
Bhupinderpal Gill testified earlier in the trial that while he did have an affair with Ronald, it ended in the fall of 2013 and told the crown he never loved her.
But testifying for a second day, Ronald’s husband Jason Ronald painted the relationship in a different way.
He testified he confronted his wife about her affair with Gill and she denied it.  Ronald said he didn’t believe her.
“They stared at each other with love in their eyes,” he said.
Ronald, who also worked at OC Transpo, said co-workers often mistook Gill as his wife’s husband.
Under cross-examination from Gurpreet Ronald’s lawyer Michael Smith, Ronald admitted that one day after “a few drinks” he was fed up with the situation and went over to the Gill’s house to confront Bhupinderpal.
But he said Gill wasn’t home and there was no confrontation.
“I was going to tell him to take her if he wanted her,” said Ronald, to which the courtroom erupted in laughter.
In a testy and at times confrontational cross examination under Smith, Ronald admitted he had a problem with alcohol, smoked marijuana and engaged in an affair in the months leading up to his wife’s arrest.
But he maintained his testimony, in which he said in fits of anger his wife lunged at him several times with a kitchen knife in fights over money.
“I always felt her hatred was reserved for me but clearly I was wrong,” he said.
Smith disputed Ronald’s version of events and said if it did happen why didn’t Ronald tell someone.
“I didn’t contact police or anyone because I was embarrassed and ashamed,” he said.
Ronald had testified the final fight with his wife in the fall of 2013 was over his affair and the financial costs of separating and that she had lunged at him with a knife.
Smith said to Ronald in that incident his wife had actually handed Ronald the knife and said “I’ve had enough, kill me.”
“That’s not true, it’s a complete fabrication,” Ronald responded.
Smith also suggested that during that argument Ronald punched his wife in the ribs.
“That’s a complete fabrication, I never punched her,” Ronald said.
Smith put to Ronald that his wife took control of their finances because of his drinking, suggesting she once bailed him out for a $10,000 drug debt.
Ronald denied that as well.