MANDEL: 'Horrible accident' or 'grotesque' murder?

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In closing submissions, a jury is always presented with two radically different version of events.

And so it was Thursday at the trial of Kenneth Bellamy, charged with second-degree murder in the horrific June 2023 slaying of his partner and mother of two of his children, Tracy Iannuccilli.

But on one point both sides agree – Bellamy caused her stabbing death in the North York hotel that had been converted into a homeless shelter.

Where they differ is in his intent.

Testifying in his own defence, Bellamy insisted Iannuccilli flew into a rage and tried to stab him when he accused her of caring more about drugs than their children. And as he struggled to wrestle the weapon away from her, she fell back on the bed, he fell on top of her and that pushed the blade into her neck.

“It was a horrible accident in the course of a drug-fuelled struggle. When you consider the evidence as a whole there’s no possible way you can find Mr. Bellamy intended to cause Ms Iannuccilli’s death,” defence lawyer Kristen Dulysh told the jury.

“This case defies common sense. Ms. Iannuccilli and Mr. Bellamy’s life did not make sense. They were in deep emotional pain and they turned to drugs to cope, leading to years of chaos. On Friday June 30, 2023, the perfect recipe for disaster emerged.”

Prosecutors argue the “ferocious and unimpeded attack” was no accident and more than 20 wounds to her face and neck prove Bellamy intended to kill his 44-year-old partner.

“If you stab or otherwise wound somebody over 15 times in the head and neck and they die as a result of that stabbing, I submit the stabber intended to kill that person,” countered Crown attorney Kene Canton.

“Mr. Bellamy had the knife the whole time. That’s the only way these injuries could have been produced.”

There were defensive wounds to her hands and arms, Canton said, and most problematic for Bellamy to explain were the two fatal stab wounds to Iannuccilli’s neck: one 2.7 cm and the other 3.8 cm.

“His whole story is premised on a single, accidental stabbing,” he argued. “It should be dismissed as nothing other than a total lie.”

Court heard the couple had been together since 2008; Iannuccilli worked as a manager for a pool company and Bellamy worked at a freezer warehouse. They had their first child in 2011 but their lives began their downward slide, according to Bellamy’s lawyer, after they lost a son in 2015 and Iannuccilli’s prescription for pain meds eventually led to her addiction to opioids.

Bellamy joined his partner’s addiction to crack and fentanyl, Dulysh said. After another child was born in 2020, Children’s Aid became involved and Iannuccilli’s parents took over care of both kids.

“What follows is a tragic existence of getting kicked out of various places, living in different shelters and doing what they need to do,” the lawyer said. “When we get to June of 2023, this has been going on for three years.”

Bellamy and Iannuccilli were told they had to leave the former Edward Village hotel on Yorkland Blvd. – near Sheppard Ave. E. and Hwy. 404 – by the end of the month. On June 30, 2023, shelter staff had told police that the couple in unit 1030 was being evicted that day but no one had seen Iannuccilli since dinnertime on Wednesday and they were concerned.

Court heard Bellamy had barricaded himself inside their room and warned the first officers on the scene that he’d jump out the window if they tried to come in. He also told them Iannuccilli wasn’t there.

When the ETF managed to convince him to let them in, officers discovered her naked body under a blanket, her head wrapped in a towel, and stuffed under the bathroom sink, the bloodied mattress had been turned over and in a closet by the door, blood-drenched bed linens were found in a garbage bag that smelled of bleach.

Superior Court Justice Kelly Byrne will begin her charge to the jury on Friday.

mmandel@postmedia.com