Guilty plea sheds light on 'big city crime in small Ontario city'
The mystery surrounding Victoria Dill’s violent death last summer has lingered since she was found gunned down near her burning Hiawatha Street home.
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ST. THOMAS – The mystery surrounding Victoria Dill’s violent death last summer has lingered since she was found gunned down near her burning Hiawatha Street home.
Dill, 39, was only the second homicide victim in St. Thomas in the last nine years and her death and a suspected arson on July 3, 2024, sent shockwaves throughout the community.
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But on Thursday, some of the questions were answered when Keegan Harvey, 21, one among three men charged in the case, pleaded guilty to possession of a loaded, prohibited handgun, specifically a Taurus G2C 9-millimetre handgun, that was used to shoot Dill.
Ontario Court Justice Glen Donald was told Thursday Harvey wasn’t the shooter or the firebug who set her apartment unit ablaze, but he and others identified in the case were involved in St. Thomas’s drug culture.
Outside court, Harvey’s lawyer Jim Dean characterized the homicide as “big city crime in a small Ontario city.”
There were some precautions taken in court to make way for the guilty plea. Harvey appeared by teleconference from a provincial jail outside the London-St. Thomas area, an unusual step given the violent, high-profile nature of the crime.
Elgin County Crown attorney David Rows told Donald “the Crown has some concerns with respect to the intimidation of witnesses and parties involved in this particular proceeding.”
Dean said “there have been some threats” at past appearances and during one video appearance there were comments made to his client and “there was someone who made a gesture of the finger across the throat.”
Dean said outside of court, there have been “some credible threats against my client and his family to dissuade him from taking responsibility for his part in this,” both through third parties and social media, and at least one person has been charged with uttering threats.
“Uttering threats and intimidation of justice participants are serious allegations and demonstrate the serious and dangerous nature of this type of lifestyle,” Dean said.
“And sending such threats through one’s own social media account just defies logic to me,” he said.
In the courtroom, Donald ordered anyone observing the court through the teleconference link to turn on their cameras to show their faces online to the court.
An agreed statement of facts was read into the record by Rows, who told Donald that on July 2, 2024, Harvey was driving his father’s grey Chevrolet Malibu and had three men with him.
One of them instructed Harvey to take them to a gas station to buy gas he said was to fill up a motorcycle. Shortly before midnight, the Malibu was caught on video surveillance driving into the Petro-Canada on Wilson Avenue in St. Thomas.
One of the rear-seat passenger side got out and walked to the driver’s side. He was wearing dark clothing, tan shoes and a mask. Harvey, who also was wearing a mask covering his face, got out and was given money by the passenger, Rows said.
Harvey went into the gas station store and bought a 12-pack of water and about 16 litres of gasoline, paying $30 in cash.
While Harvey was in the store, the other rear-seat passenger got out. He was not wearing a mask but he used his left hand to pull his T-shirt up over his face. He got back in the car.
Harvey left the store and popped open the car’s trunk. The passenger took out a red gas can and filled it with gas.
Harvey got back into the driver’s seat and the passenger put the filled gas can into the trunk. A fourth man in the front passenger seat never left the Malibu. The car left the gas station and headed north on Sunset Drive.
Rows said the car stopped briefly at a residence and the rear passenger who filled the gas can gave Harvey directions to where the motorcycle was that needed filling.
Surveillance video from a business captured at about 1 a.m. on July 3 shows the Malibu travelling east on Curtis Street and entering a parking lot at 96 Curtis St. The car was backed into a parking spot at the north end of the lot.
But there was no motorcycle to fill with gas, Rows said.
Instead, one of the two rear seat passengers asked Harvey for his loaded handgun. Harvey first said no, and told the man to take the gun he believed the other rear passenger had in his possession. But that passenger “directed” Harvey to turn over his gun to the man.
“Keegan Harvey complied,” Rows said.
More surveillance video from a business captured the killing. Rows said a rear passenger is on video retrieving the gas can from the trunk of Harvey’s car and carrying it south to the entrance of Unit 4 at 20 Hiawatha St. where Dill lived.
He poured the gasoline around the north wall and entrance of the residence and lit the gas “causing an explosive fireball,” Rows said, and setting the building on fire. The man ran north toward Harvey’s car.
Dill was making her way home and was at the intersection of Hiawatha and Curtis streets just as the fire was lit. She chased the man, but as she got closer to the car, the man “turns back toward Victoria (Dill) and shoots her in the head, causing her to fall to the ground, deceased,” Rows said.
Harvey was directed by the other rear passenger to drive away. He put the car into drive, but waited for the man who fired the gun to get back in the rear driver’s side of the car.
The four men went their separate ways and Harvey “did not retain the firearm used to kill Victoria Dill,” Rows said.
Rows said Harvey admits he was in possession of the gun and he knew it was loaded. The gun is a prohibited weapon and Harvey didn’t have a licence for it. He also admits he provided the gun to the shooter at the direction of the other rear passenger “and that this firearm was used to cause the death of Victoria Dill.”
Harvey said he didn’t disagree with any of the facts read into the court record. No pre-sentence report was requested. Harvey’s original charge of accessory to murder remains before the court until his sentencing date that Rows said is “down the road.”
The case was adjourned to Sept. 16 for an update on plans surrounding the next steps.
Two other people charged in connection with the case remain before the court.
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