Man sentenced to life in prison for brutal murder of Hamilton teacher
Jenna Gazzola was found dead in her apartment in 2016
Superior Court Justice Harrison Arrell choked down tears Thursday as he spoke about the horrific murder of school teacher Jenna Gazzola and sentenced her killer to life in prison.
"It's hard for this court to imagine the horror, pain and fear that the victim must've endured during this prolonged and vicious attack," he said in Hamilton court.
In sentencing Shane Shakeshaft for the 34-year-old's murder, Arrell took the unusual step of allowing a plea to 2nd degree murder, to spare the victim's family a trial that would have required a detailed recounting of the crime and to give them certainty about the outcome.
"It is unfair to Jenna or to us her family that when we think of her now we think of words like murder, rape, violence, victim," said the victim's mother Laurie Gazzola in her victim impact statement.
Shakeshaft's life sentence comes with no parole for 18 years. He will get credit for the two years and 182 days he has already served.
No forgiveness will ever be given, and no apology will ever be accepted- Marino Gazzola, victim's father
According to an agreed statement of facts Shakeshaft broke into Gazzola's apartment while she was away. When she returned he attacked her.
He smashed her head against the wall and the floor repeatedly, dragged her into the bedroom and sexually assaulted her repeatedly before strangling her to death with an electrical chord.
Crown and defence agree
The initial charge was a 1st-degree murder, which comes when sexual assault is part of a murder, but was downgraded under agreement between the Crown and defence.
Shakeshaft, 30, was determined criminally responsible in February of this year by a forensic psychiatrist. A charge of 1st-degree murder would have meant that Shakeshaft could have been reevaluated to determine his criminal responsibility.
"We tiptoe around her name as it physically hurts to reimagine the events of [that day]," said Laurie Gazzola.
Gazzola was a Hamilton teacher. She lived alone and was single. She was found lying on her bed semi-nude with blood on and around her in her apartment at 100 Forest Avenue on April 18, 2016.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
"There is no sentence I can impose that will properly reflect the brutality and violence Mr. Shakeshaft perpetrated on this helpless innocent victim"- Superior Court Justice Harrison Arrell
Shakeshaft, who lived on the same floor as her, was found there too: unresponsive, wearing nothing but bloodied socks and Gazzola's bathrobe and scattered pill bottles around him.
Police were called to the scene after the building's superintendent found Gazzola's dog roaming around. When he tried to return the dog he found the front door of the apartment forced open and Shakeshaft on the living room couch.
Police found discarded clothes, blood on the wall and a trail of blood on the floor that led to the master bedroom.
Police also found Gazzola's laptop on the bed. They ran a history search of it and of the victim's TV history.
The search revealed several pornographic TV movies watched and 302 internet searches made an hour before and several hours after the murder, "almost all of which [were] for pornography," reads the agreed statement of facts.
There was no trace of pornographic content before Shakeshaft got a hold of the computer.
"The sexual assault component is such that it does make it a first degree murder, factually and legally," said assistant Crown attorney Craig Fraser, "but I can tell you your honour that we come here today with the second degree murder because the family first and foremost needs certainty of outcome."
Determining the sentence
Still, the sentencing proposed was not that of a normal 2nd-degree murder. "The viciousness of this assault requires that the parole eligibility is significantly heightened, that it be in the range of 18-20 years," said Fraser.
The defence lawyer, Beth Bromberg, was willing to agree to 18 years minus the roughly two and a half years Shakeshaft has already served since April.
We tiptoe around her name as it physically hurts to reimagine the events of [that day]- Laurie Gazzola, victim's mother
Arrell thought the proposed sentencing was just.
"I note however for the family," he said, "that there is no sentence I can impose that will properly reflect the brutality and violence Mr. Shakeshaft perpetrated on this helpless innocent victim."
The agreed facts say Gazzola went through a "brutal, vicious and sustained" beating that lead to extensive injuries.
A troubled past
Shakeshaft, the defence said, had a troubled childhood.
"Mr. Shakeshaft does not claim in any way that his tragic background provides an excuse for his crime," said Bromberg. "However, I question whether things might have been different if the young Shane Shakeshaft had received the care education and treatment he needed and that all children should have."
He lived with his mother, and only saw his father on the weekends. When he was 11-years-old he returned home from a weekend with his father to find his mother had killed herself. He then moved in with his grandmother, who killed herself a year later.
After the death of his mother Shakeshaft never returned to school. He never got past Grade 6. He lived in poverty throughout his life.
I question whether things might have been different if the young Shane Shakeshaft had received the care education and treatment he needed and that all children should have- Beth Bomberg, defence attorney
He moved to Hamilton from Nova Scotia in 2014 with his retired father.
Shakeshaft had encounters with two other women from his building. One of them accused him of drawing a penis on her apartment door. The other says he was particularly interested in knowing if she lived alone and was single.
On the day of the crime Shakeshaft was unemployed, had no internet or phone, slept on a mattress on the floor and was suffering from depression. He is also diagnosed with paranoia and anxiety.
"We hold this man accountable," said Marino Gazzola, the victim's father, while he held back tears during his victim impact statement. "No forgiveness will ever be given, and no apology will ever be accepted."