Don Jail beating victim 'did not deserve this,' mother says

The mother of a man beaten to death at Toronto's Don Jail after a fight over a bag of potato chips told a sentencing hearing Thursday she will forever feel guilty about her son's death.

Troy Campbell, 26, pleaded guilty earlier this week to second-degree murder and admitted to stomping on fellow prisoner Jeff Munro's head as he lay in bed on Nov. 7, 2009.

Campbell was in custody for robbery and aggravated assault.

Munro, 32, was in jail for committing an indecent act and failing to comply with his probation.

Munro's mother Christine read her victim impact statement in court on Thursday, and said she will have to live her life knowing her son, who she says suffered from drug-induced schizophrenia, died a violent death alone in his cell. 

"I have failed to protect my son and keep him safe, I will forever feel guilty," her statement reads. "When I close my eyes, I see visions of my son being tormented."

Melanie Munro's victim impact statement said her brother was beaten so bad "I couldn't even recognize him."

Another sister, Brittany Munro, said: "I'm now a social worker helping adults with mental illness … couldn't help my brother but at least I can help others."

Victim 'did not deserve this'

In an interview with CBC News on Wednesday, Christine Munro said she is devastated over the brutal and senseless murder of her son, who she says should not have been in the jail.

"It is very disturbing for us as a family to know what Jeff went through," she told CBC News. "He was truly cared about and loved very much and he did not deserve this."

She says her son didn't know who the potato chips belonged to when he took them.

"They were just sitting there on a common table … [Munro] just thought it was a free-for-all and I guess after he returned to his cell that’s when someone had said 'Munro took your half a bag of chips.' That's when it began."

Christine Munro said her son's brushes with the law were always for minor offences and that in the past, police had always taken him to a psychiatric hospital.

"He was ill but Jeff was by no means a criminal," said his mother. "He did not have a criminal record and anybody can look into that. Jeff was an innocent victim in all of this. He wasn't just a homeless person who nobody cared about."

Sentencing in the case will continue Wednesday.