Accused in Norfolk homicide pleads not guilty

Marilyn and Michael Murray of Delhi say having to wait almost five years for the trial of the man accused of murdering their son Michael has taken a physical and emotional toll on their family. 

J.P. Antonacci

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Robert Lee Ballard killed his friend, Michael Shawn Murray, in Delhi in late March 2021.

On that the Crown and defence agree.

But Ballard pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder on the first day of his judge-alone trial in Simcoe on Monday, Nov. 10.

His defence lawyers, Genevieve Eliany and Ian McCuaig, will argue their client was not criminally responsible for Murray’s death due to a mental disorder and should be committed to an institution rather than sent to prison.

“Did he understand the nature and quality of his actions?” McCuaig said to reporters during a break in the proceedings. “It’s a question of whether or not he had the moral capacity to know that what he was doing is wrong.”

That leaves Justice Aubrey Hilliard to rule on whether Ballard was mentally capable of understanding the consequences of stabbing his friend with a kitchen knife and hitting him with a mallet inside Murray’s home on King Street on March 30, 2021.

With Murray’s elderly parents and about 20 other relatives and friends in the courtroom, assistant Crown attorney Gracie Romano recited the facts of the case as jointly agreed to by the Crown and defence.

“Robert Ballard acknowledges that he caused the death of Michael Murray,” Romano began, while Ballard - his head shaved and beard closely cropped - listened motionlessly from the prisoner’s box, a white T-shirt hanging loosely over his heavy-set frame.

Court heard Murray, 54, had been living in a motel in Delhi and befriended Ballard, then 27, after the younger man moved into the room next door in October 2020.

A few weeks before he died, Murray and his common-law partner moved into a new apartment on King Street.

On what would be the last day of Murray’s life, he visited his parents - who lived nearby - and went for a walk with his mother. He left around 4:30 p.m., saying he had a headache, and promised to return the following night to cook dinner.

When their son did not answer his phone the next day, the Murrays went to check on him.

They found the front door to his red-brick apartment building slightly ajar. Murray’s body “was lying in the threshold of the doorway, with his foot  partially blocking the door,” Romano said.

Murray’s horrified parents told police their son was “covered in blood,” with more blood on the walls and “going down the stairs.”

“His eyes were still open,” Romano told the court.

Murray’s relatives sat grim-faced as graphic photographs and video footage were shown inside the courtroom. Their loved one was found naked from the waist down, with clear signs of trauma to his face and head.

Murray was seemingly attacked sometime during the night, as his pillow and bedsheets were soaked with blood. The floor around his bed was similarly stained with smeared blood and blood-matted hair.

An autopsy found “at least 14” stab wounds and “at least 30 blunt force injuries” to the head and torso, along with bruising on his hands and feet, suggesting Murray tried to fend off his attacker.

Court heard a large kitchen knife lay on the ground near Murray’s bed, with a smaller bread knife a few feet away. Each knife had Murray’s blood on its hilt and blade.

Officers also found a bloodstained kitchen mallet at the crime scene.

It is unclear how Ballard got into the house or how Murray got up the stairs after losing a lot of blood while in his basement. An autopsy found Murray would have died soon after the attack, but his exact time of death is unknown.

Romano said a gas station security camera captured Ballard walking in the direction of Murray’s apartment around 1 a.m. on the night of the murder.

At 2 p.m. the next afternoon, right around the time Murray’s parents got to their son’s door, police were called to James Street in Delhi for reports of a shirtless man jumping on the hood of a car and yelling “help me.”

Another 911 call came in a short time later about a man who had just broken into a house on James Street and stolen a coat.

OPP Const. Quade Odrowski found Ballard sitting half-naked on the sidewalk outside a variety store with a small crowd of people around him.

“It was a most unusual scene for somebody to be shirtless and shoeless, especially in March,” Eliany told the court.

Ballard never left police custody after being arrested for the break-and-enter, as blood found on his pants, shoes and belt was eventually matched to Murray’s blood from the crime scene.

He was charged with murder on April 14, 2021, and has been behind bars awaiting trial ever since.

‘He wanted to help’

Not long before he died, Murray told his parents Ballard appeared troubled and was sending him a lot of messages asking for help - 48 texts in two days, phone records revealed.

“Michael told them he wanted to get his friend help,” Romano said, adding Murray’s partner told police Murray “seemed to think he could save him.”

Ballard was “talking about the devil,” Murray revealed, asking his father to contact a priest the family knew, Romano added.

The victim also planned to connect his friend to a social worker, Murray’s partner told police.

Romano said Ballard’s ex-girlfriend told police he had a history of cocaine use but had not used the drug while they were together in the summer of 2020.

“After their breakup, he sent her messages saying he was possessed by demons, saw things and that he heard voices,” Romano said. “He had never talked about demons before.”

Expert testimony will explore whether Ballard had a “disease of the mind” and was “unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of the act,” Eliany told reporters.

Marilyn Murray, the victim’s mother, testified during a pretrial hearing and her evidence was incorporated into the agreed statement of fact. Romano told reporters none of the victim’s relatives will have to give evidence in court.

The trial adjourned until Friday, Nov. 14.

- J.P. Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.