Post by Dean Robinson on Aug 5, 2008 9:41:16 GMT -5
The tragedy of Teresa Pohchoo's relationship with Jack Craig began when she answered a matchmaking ad. Bruce Ward reflects on the ill-fated relationship that ended with a stabbing.
The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, July 26, 2008
www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=9bace386-02af-4c43-a58a-5d64ccaffeaa
Teresa Pohchoo Craig lost more than her freedom yesterday when she was sentenced to eight years in prison for stabbing her husband to death as he slept.
She also lost contact with her 12-year-old son, possibly forever.
The Children's Aid Society plans to go to family court in September, seeking to have the boy declared a ward of the Crown. The CAS also wants the court to rule that Mrs. Craig must have no contact with her son, who is in foster care.
As well, Immigration Canada will now issue a removal order so that Mrs. Craig will be deported to her native Malaysia once she serves her sentence. Because of the seriousness of the crime, there is no appeal process for the removal order.
"The tragedy in this case is compounded by the fact that a 12-year-old boy's life has been turned upside down by Teresa Craig's actions," Crown attorney Jason Neubauer said in an interview. "He has lost both of his parents now as a result of this."
Defence lawyer Richard Morris expressed a similar sentiment. "I think the only thing I can say is to me the whole situation is a tragic one. It's a situation where a 12-year-old child has lost both his parents. There are no winners in this case. It's just sad."
Mrs. Craig, 51, was able to visit with her son while she was on bail awaiting trial and living in an Ottawa women's shelter. At her sentencing hearing this week, the court heard that the boy wants to keep seeing his mom.
Mrs. Craig began crying as Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert L. Maranger delivered the sentence. As Mrs. Craig left the prisoner's dock, she waved to about 20 supporters in the courtroom, some of whom were sobbing audibly. "We love you, Teresa," one called to her.
Judge Maranger said the support shown to Mrs. Craig was "unprecedented" in his experience. He said she was "well-liked" and "easy to like."
But he denounced the brutality of the crime, saying that the homicide of Jack Craig was "a very cruel, monstrous act committed by what appears to be a fundamentally decent person.
"I am very sympathetic to Mrs. Craig," he said. "I have compassion for Mrs. Craig."
However, the conditional sentence sought by the defence -- two years less a day, to be served in the community -- was "clearly inappropriate," he said.
During her two-month trial, the jury heard that Mrs. Craig suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Two psychiatrists testified that she likely snapped and acted impulsively when she stabbed Mr. Craig four times with a butcher knife as he lay sleeping in the family's motorhome about 3 a.m. on March 31, 2006.
Judge Maranger described Mr. Craig, 54, as a "domineering, bullying, controlling man" who was verbally abusive to his wife, adding that "words can be crushing."
But there was no evidence that he had ever physically assaulted or sexually assaulted Mrs. Craig.
Although she was charged with first-degree murder, the jury of six men and five women found her guilty of manslaughter, a less serious offence that carries no mandatory sentence. The Crown agrees entirely with the court's characterization of Teresa Craig's actions," said Mr. Neubauer. "The sentence is certainly a fit one."
"Western man seeks Asian woman."
When Teresa Pohchoo answered that ad in a Malaysian newspaper in 1991, she set in motion a series of events that would end some 15 years later on the night she stabbed Jack Craig to death.
During her trial, she testified that her dream was to marry a Caucasian and have "beautiful babies." Teresa did have a child with Jack Craig, but there was never anything beautiful about their marriage.
Defence lawyer Richard Morris argued that Teresa was subjected to constant verbal abuse from her husband, and that over the years this abuse broke her spirit, ruined her health, and brought her to the brink of suicide. Jack Craig never physically assaulted his wife, nor was there any evidence that she was sexually abused, but he controlled every aspect of her life. She even had to ask his permission to telephone her family.
Although she left her husband for several years after the birth of their son, Teresa went back to Jack. In emotional testimony, she said Jack would slap and strike the boy in his attempts to home-school him. As a mother, she said, her love made her stay to protect the boy.
Teresa was in her mid-30s when she responded to the ad. Her one relationship with a Malaysian man ended after he raped her. She grew up in a large family, the only girl among half a dozen brothers. Her family ran a hand-laundry business, but Teresa found the work hard. Money became important to her.
Jack and Teresa exchanged letters, and met face to face when Teresa visited Canada with some girlfriends in 1991. She returned the next year, planning to stay in Canada for several months. But after four months with Jack she was fed up with his domineering personality and his propensity to yell, sometimes using curse words she had never heard before.
She returned to Malaysia. It was over with Jack, Teresa felt, so she went to Taiwan to work on a year-long contract.
Away from her family and friends, Teresa became lonely. She began telephoning Jack in Kemptville, renewing their romance. "I missed him," she testified. Much later, Jack would tell her that he never expected to hear from her again.
She came back to Canada and married Jack in 1994 in a small Alberta town as the couple was driving from Kemptville to British Columbia, determined to make a fresh start.
Teresa got a full-time job at a Salvation Army thrift store. Jack was a street busker and sometimes played in bars on open-mike nights, but mostly he lived on a disability pension he received after being seriously injured in a car accident years before.
In 1998, the couple split up. Teresa had custody of their young son and was living in an apartment in Nanaimo. Jack had moved to nearby Protection Island, which has a ferry service to the city. When management changed at the thrift store in 2004, Teresa quit. Fatefully, she took her son and went to live with Jack on the island.
Through her testimony, it became clear that Teresa lost control of her life "I had no say. I feel like I was pushed around all the time. I cannot have my rights. I was afraid of him. Jack was a big, strong guy. I'm a small lady."
Jack began to monitor her movements, she said, calling her cellphone whenever she was late in returning from shopping or the grocery store.
"He watch me. I got no freedom."
Jack home-schooled their son, and often slapped his arm with a ruler to discipline him, she said. When she asked him to stop, he would tell her, "Woman, relax."
"How can I relax when I see him hit a child and I feel the pain?"
Although Jack had promised to change his ways when then they got back together, he never did.
Jack and Teresa sold their house on Protection Island, and in the summer of 2005 drove back to Kemptville in an RV motorhome. A few months later, they opened a gas bar and convenience store on Donnelly Drive near Kemptville.
It was another failure. By mid-March, the gas pumps were shrouded in garbage bags because the Craigs could not pay to have the tanks refilled.
About 11 p.m. on March 31, 2006, Jack Craig came home to the recreational vehicle, now parked next to the gas bar and store. The autopsy would show that he was legally drunk and that there were traces of marijuana in his blood as well.
When police began to interrogate Teresa after she stabbed Jack, they first told her he was clinging to life. "Oh, my, he's still alive," she said. And when they told her later he had died, she answered: "Good."
On the witness stand, Teresa explained her seemingly callous comments. She feared Jack, she said, and was afraid he would hunt her down and kill her had he survived.
Teresa also testified that she heard herself say the words "Don't do it" moments before she plunged a knife into her sleeping husband.
"My mouth was saying, 'Don't do it'," she said. But at the same time, she added, "My mind is blank. I don't know what's up here," she said, gesturing at her head.
When she stabbed Jack, he sat up in bed and shouted in pain. He bled to death in the ambulance on the way to Kemptville Hospital.
During a three-hour interrogation after her arrest, Ottawa police Sgt. Mike Hudson, lead investigator in the case, asked Teresa over and over why she did it. The couple hadn't even had an argument that day, so what made her pick up the knife and use it? he wanted to know.
Several times, Teresa said she didn't know why, and couldn't explain it.
Finally, though, she answered with three words.
"Enough is enough."
The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, July 26, 2008
www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=9bace386-02af-4c43-a58a-5d64ccaffeaa
Teresa Pohchoo Craig lost more than her freedom yesterday when she was sentenced to eight years in prison for stabbing her husband to death as he slept.
She also lost contact with her 12-year-old son, possibly forever.
The Children's Aid Society plans to go to family court in September, seeking to have the boy declared a ward of the Crown. The CAS also wants the court to rule that Mrs. Craig must have no contact with her son, who is in foster care.
As well, Immigration Canada will now issue a removal order so that Mrs. Craig will be deported to her native Malaysia once she serves her sentence. Because of the seriousness of the crime, there is no appeal process for the removal order.
"The tragedy in this case is compounded by the fact that a 12-year-old boy's life has been turned upside down by Teresa Craig's actions," Crown attorney Jason Neubauer said in an interview. "He has lost both of his parents now as a result of this."
Defence lawyer Richard Morris expressed a similar sentiment. "I think the only thing I can say is to me the whole situation is a tragic one. It's a situation where a 12-year-old child has lost both his parents. There are no winners in this case. It's just sad."
Mrs. Craig, 51, was able to visit with her son while she was on bail awaiting trial and living in an Ottawa women's shelter. At her sentencing hearing this week, the court heard that the boy wants to keep seeing his mom.
Mrs. Craig began crying as Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert L. Maranger delivered the sentence. As Mrs. Craig left the prisoner's dock, she waved to about 20 supporters in the courtroom, some of whom were sobbing audibly. "We love you, Teresa," one called to her.
Judge Maranger said the support shown to Mrs. Craig was "unprecedented" in his experience. He said she was "well-liked" and "easy to like."
But he denounced the brutality of the crime, saying that the homicide of Jack Craig was "a very cruel, monstrous act committed by what appears to be a fundamentally decent person.
"I am very sympathetic to Mrs. Craig," he said. "I have compassion for Mrs. Craig."
However, the conditional sentence sought by the defence -- two years less a day, to be served in the community -- was "clearly inappropriate," he said.
During her two-month trial, the jury heard that Mrs. Craig suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Two psychiatrists testified that she likely snapped and acted impulsively when she stabbed Mr. Craig four times with a butcher knife as he lay sleeping in the family's motorhome about 3 a.m. on March 31, 2006.
Judge Maranger described Mr. Craig, 54, as a "domineering, bullying, controlling man" who was verbally abusive to his wife, adding that "words can be crushing."
But there was no evidence that he had ever physically assaulted or sexually assaulted Mrs. Craig.
Although she was charged with first-degree murder, the jury of six men and five women found her guilty of manslaughter, a less serious offence that carries no mandatory sentence. The Crown agrees entirely with the court's characterization of Teresa Craig's actions," said Mr. Neubauer. "The sentence is certainly a fit one."
"Western man seeks Asian woman."
When Teresa Pohchoo answered that ad in a Malaysian newspaper in 1991, she set in motion a series of events that would end some 15 years later on the night she stabbed Jack Craig to death.
During her trial, she testified that her dream was to marry a Caucasian and have "beautiful babies." Teresa did have a child with Jack Craig, but there was never anything beautiful about their marriage.
Defence lawyer Richard Morris argued that Teresa was subjected to constant verbal abuse from her husband, and that over the years this abuse broke her spirit, ruined her health, and brought her to the brink of suicide. Jack Craig never physically assaulted his wife, nor was there any evidence that she was sexually abused, but he controlled every aspect of her life. She even had to ask his permission to telephone her family.
Although she left her husband for several years after the birth of their son, Teresa went back to Jack. In emotional testimony, she said Jack would slap and strike the boy in his attempts to home-school him. As a mother, she said, her love made her stay to protect the boy.
Teresa was in her mid-30s when she responded to the ad. Her one relationship with a Malaysian man ended after he raped her. She grew up in a large family, the only girl among half a dozen brothers. Her family ran a hand-laundry business, but Teresa found the work hard. Money became important to her.
Jack and Teresa exchanged letters, and met face to face when Teresa visited Canada with some girlfriends in 1991. She returned the next year, planning to stay in Canada for several months. But after four months with Jack she was fed up with his domineering personality and his propensity to yell, sometimes using curse words she had never heard before.
She returned to Malaysia. It was over with Jack, Teresa felt, so she went to Taiwan to work on a year-long contract.
Away from her family and friends, Teresa became lonely. She began telephoning Jack in Kemptville, renewing their romance. "I missed him," she testified. Much later, Jack would tell her that he never expected to hear from her again.
She came back to Canada and married Jack in 1994 in a small Alberta town as the couple was driving from Kemptville to British Columbia, determined to make a fresh start.
Teresa got a full-time job at a Salvation Army thrift store. Jack was a street busker and sometimes played in bars on open-mike nights, but mostly he lived on a disability pension he received after being seriously injured in a car accident years before.
In 1998, the couple split up. Teresa had custody of their young son and was living in an apartment in Nanaimo. Jack had moved to nearby Protection Island, which has a ferry service to the city. When management changed at the thrift store in 2004, Teresa quit. Fatefully, she took her son and went to live with Jack on the island.
Through her testimony, it became clear that Teresa lost control of her life "I had no say. I feel like I was pushed around all the time. I cannot have my rights. I was afraid of him. Jack was a big, strong guy. I'm a small lady."
Jack began to monitor her movements, she said, calling her cellphone whenever she was late in returning from shopping or the grocery store.
"He watch me. I got no freedom."
Jack home-schooled their son, and often slapped his arm with a ruler to discipline him, she said. When she asked him to stop, he would tell her, "Woman, relax."
"How can I relax when I see him hit a child and I feel the pain?"
Although Jack had promised to change his ways when then they got back together, he never did.
Jack and Teresa sold their house on Protection Island, and in the summer of 2005 drove back to Kemptville in an RV motorhome. A few months later, they opened a gas bar and convenience store on Donnelly Drive near Kemptville.
It was another failure. By mid-March, the gas pumps were shrouded in garbage bags because the Craigs could not pay to have the tanks refilled.
About 11 p.m. on March 31, 2006, Jack Craig came home to the recreational vehicle, now parked next to the gas bar and store. The autopsy would show that he was legally drunk and that there were traces of marijuana in his blood as well.
When police began to interrogate Teresa after she stabbed Jack, they first told her he was clinging to life. "Oh, my, he's still alive," she said. And when they told her later he had died, she answered: "Good."
On the witness stand, Teresa explained her seemingly callous comments. She feared Jack, she said, and was afraid he would hunt her down and kill her had he survived.
Teresa also testified that she heard herself say the words "Don't do it" moments before she plunged a knife into her sleeping husband.
"My mouth was saying, 'Don't do it'," she said. But at the same time, she added, "My mind is blank. I don't know what's up here," she said, gesturing at her head.
When she stabbed Jack, he sat up in bed and shouted in pain. He bled to death in the ambulance on the way to Kemptville Hospital.
During a three-hour interrogation after her arrest, Ottawa police Sgt. Mike Hudson, lead investigator in the case, asked Teresa over and over why she did it. The couple hadn't even had an argument that day, so what made her pick up the knife and use it? he wanted to know.
Several times, Teresa said she didn't know why, and couldn't explain it.
Finally, though, she answered with three words.
"Enough is enough."