TORONTO – The trial of a wealthy Toronto businessman and a dominatrix accused of conspiring to hire a biker to kill the businessman’s wife opened Friday with testimony that the hit man never intended to kill the woman and cut up her body.
Kerry Robert Anderson, 46, told an Ontario Superior Court jury of eight men and four women he was approached by his former girlfriend and mother of his son, Sandra Lynn Rinella, to kill the wife of a wealthy client in August 2003.
He testified that the client, Alex Petraitis, wanted his wife of 40 years, Kirsten, killed at the couple’s cottage near Buckhorn, Ont., before Christmas and told him a key was hidden under a rock by the garage.
The Inisfil, Ont., man testified he initially wanted $25,000 to do the job. But as the months-long cloak and dagger plot progressed, he made repeated demands for and received more cash and money orders. His demands eventually rose to about $120,000.
When asked if he ever tried to kill Petraitis’ wife, Anderson told the court, “No, I didn’t.”
“I was going to ignore the situation and hope it was going to go away.”
Petraitis, 68, and Rinella, 47, have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and counselling murder.
Anderson was convicted of attempted extortion against Petraitis in September 2004 and was sentenced to 6 1/2 years. The murder never took place.
Anderson testified Friday that Rinella said she was worried she would lose Petraitis as a client if he didn’t carry out the killing.
He said he secretly taped several conversations detailing the alleged plot using a tape recorder in his sock.
Anderson told the court he had been president of the Loners Motorcycle Club in Toronto and had also been associated with the Hells Angels, Satan’s Choice and the Vagabonds.
He testified that he has a lengthy criminal record including a 1991 manslaughter conviction for killing a man with a shotgun over a drug debt.
Anderson told the court that he and Rinella, with whom he had a five-year relationship, met several times to discuss the plot before he was finally introduced to Petraitis at a Home Depot store in east Toronto.
Anderson assured Petraitis he would kill his wife but demanded $5,000 more than the $45,000 he had already been paid.
He said he got that $5,000 at their next meeting at a restaurant where they discussed over dinner how the murder would take place.
“Alex told me he wanted it to take place at his cottage,” Anderson testified.
Each time they met, he said he reassured Petraitis he would kill his wife.
He said he took a week-long trip to Mexico but when he returned he and Rinella went to Petraitis’ cottage, found the key, “peeked around” and left. They didn’t go inside because he didn’t want to leave fingerprints.
Anderson said he later asked Rinella for another $25,000.
“She got very upset; called me greedy,” Anderson told the court.
He said he told Rinella that Petraitis could afford it.
One scenario the trio discussed had Anderson giving Petraitis colourless, tasteless pills to knock his wife out and Anderson would put her in a box and bury her, he said. Anderson would tie her up to make it look like a kidnapping, he added.
Crown attorney Kim Motyl read parts of a transcript of one of the secret tapes that was played for the jury. Anderson said the tape features him and Petraitis outside the businessman’s office, the magazine wholesaler Metro News. It was made days before both men were arrested in mid-January 2004.
Anderson: “You’re going to be at the cottage on Saturday.”
Petraitis: “Yup. We’re going up Friday or Thursday.”
Anderson: “I’m just going to knock on your door, grab her and take her.”
Anderson: “You’ve got my word I’ll do it Saturday.”
Jurors heard another tape which Anderson said he secretly made. On it, he told Rinella they had decided against drugging Petraitis’ wife and that the businessman would find the chopped up body instead.
“We’ll just cut with a chainsaw,” he said, adding the “chainsaw is being buried with it.”
But as Anderson delayed carrying out the killing, he said Petraitis threatened to have him and Rinella charged with extortion and that he would claim the pair had threatened to reveal his relationship with the dominatrix.