Records show 'high risk' Anthony George was unpredictable, prone to violence, jury hears

A seasoned investigator with the Ontario Ministry of Correctional and Community Services told a London jury that records listing jailhouse killer Anthony George's propensity for violence while under the influence of alcohol would have been easily accessible to jail staff on the night of Adam Kargus's murder.  

William McVeigh, 53, is an inspector with Ontario's Correctional Services Oversight Investigation Unit, an agency that steps in whenever there's suspected wrongdoing within the province's major institutions. 

He was assigned to probe what went wrong the night inmate Adam Kargus was beaten to death by his cellmate Anthony George at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre on Halloween night 2013.

McVeigh is the final Crown witness in the case against former EMDC supervisor Stephen Jurkus and former guard Leslie Lonsbary, who the Crown alleges did nothing to intervene to prevent Kargus's death.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to failing to provide the necessaries of life in connection with Kargus's murder at the hands of his cellmate. 

Records kept where accused was working

The court has already heard from former guard Greg Langford and jail nurse Mary Wilson-Baarbe, witnesses who both testified they could smell alcohol emanating from Geoge's cell and that George appeared to be under the influence of a mind-altering substance on the night of the murder.

McVeigh testified Thursday that George's unit card, the name given to the permanent record of each inmate in the correctional system, warned that George was a dangerous and unpredictable inmate who was prone to violence, especially when under the influence of alcohol. 

It's kept in the control room.- Insp. William McVeigh

"Each inmate has one," McVeigh said of the unit card. "It's kept in the control room."

The control room is where the court has heard former guard Leslie Lonsbary was working during the hour-long beating in which Adam Kargus lost his life. 

McVeigh's earlier testimony led the jury through a slideshow of still images taken from jailhouse surveillance video showing Langford and Wilson-Baarbe were in the control room with Lonsbary for approximately 40 seconds on Halloween night 2013 long enough, the Crown argues, to inform him about the smell of alcohol and George's apparent intoxication. 

According to time stamps on jailhouse video taken on the night of the murder, the trio would have been in the same room approximately a half hour before George started the beating that ended Kargus's life. 

A half hour later, video shows Lonsbary closed the door to the control room during what the Crown contends are the panicked moments when Kargus was pleading for his life.

'Hostile client'

McVeigh told the court that George's unit card labelled him as a "hostile client" with numerous assault and weapons convictions.

George's record also lists the fact that he is a suspected user of crystal meth and can become violent when drunk because, McVeigh explained to the jury, "alcohol was involved in most of his offences."

The Crown alleges both Jurkus and Lonsbary knew George had been drinking jailhouse brew, an improvised and often potent alcoholic drink created by inmates, on the night of Kargus's murder. 

The jury has heard testimony from ex-guard Greg Langford who testified he informed both men about the suspected brew before he ended his shift at 8 p.m. the night Kargus was killed. 

McVeigh said that on top of being potentially violent while under the influence of alcohol, George's unit card also indicates he is highly unpredictable and prone to escape attempts. 

The card lists George as a "high-risk" inmate who required "intensive supervision" because he was strong enough to break or bend steel restraints, such as handcuffs and belly cuffs, and had done so on more than one occasion while being transported between institutions in London, Sarnia and Windsor. 

George also had known gang affiliations, had smuggled razors into jail by hooping — a term used to describe inmates inserting contraband into their anus — and made a suicide attempt in 2005. 

Kargus, by contrast, was serving a 90-day sentence for fraud. 

Empty bed in segregation

Given the fact George needed to be watched closely because of his highly unpredictable and violent nature, the Crown argues former EMDC supervisor Stephen Jurkus should have put George into segregation at the first whiff of his possible impairment on Halloween night 2013. 

There was one bed available.- Inspector William McVeigh

McVeigh indicated to the court that while Jurkus indicated to police that there was no room to put George in segregation, McVeigh's investigation revealed that jail records indicated there had been an empty bed in the segregation unit since 10 a.m. on the day of the murder. 

"There was one bed available," McVeigh testified. 

Former guard Greg Langford told the court in earlier testimony that Jurkus wanted to let George "sleep it off," because he said there was no room in segregation. 

McVeigh's investigation also revealed that while inmates described the deadly beating that took Kargus's life as so loud it shook the cell in the level below, it was never reported in the jail's logbooks. 

Early in his testimony, McVeigh told the court that the primary functions of jail staff are "care, custody and control."

"What do you mean by care?" asked Crown lawyer Fraser Kelly. 

"Caring for those who are in custody," McVeigh testified. "Safety, their welfare, their wellbeing."