By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-26 18:52:19 | Updated at 2024-11-28 21:48:39
2 days ago
A Canadian man who pushed his girlfriend down the stairs before dropping her dead body off in the woods and lighting her house on fire received a shockingly light sentence for his crimes.
Philip Toner, 44, was convicted of aggravated assault on Monday and sentenced to eight years for his role in 35-year-old Brenda Ware's 2021 death after he pleaded guilty.
Toner, who was originally charged with second-degree murder, was granted time served, leaving only two years and nine months left on his sentence, according to CBC.
The murder charge was dropped after the medical examiner couldn't determine Ware's cause of death as her body was found in a wooded area with a bear.
Toner had left her body in the woods after loading it into his Jeep and setting several fires in her home, which the Crown said was to conceal evidence, according to CBC.
Ware and Toner had gotten into an argument inside her Sundre home on May 5, 2021, and he admitted to police that he hit her and caused her to fall down a flight of stairs, where she landed unconscious.
He later fell asleep beside her and when he woke up, he found his girlfriend dead, according to CBC.
Toner attempted chest compressions, according to Rocky Mountain Outlook. He did not seek medical assistance.
Philip Toner, 44, was convicted of aggravated assault on Monday and sentenced to eight years for his role in 35-year-old Brenda Ware's 2021 death after he pleaded guilty
Toner had left her body in the woods after loading it into his Jeep and setting several fires in her home, which the Crown said was to conceal evidence
He then loaded her up body up in his car and drove to British Columbia. Toner eventually grew tired and slept near Highway 93.
Toner's car was stuck when he woke up and he dragged her body more than 160 feet into the woods before walking to a nearby town.
'Mr. Toner ultimately walked out of the house with a body and then had to burn it to cover up a crime scene,' Prosecutor Ryan Seifried told the court.
Her body was found with blunt force trauma to her head and ribs and she had a number of sharp-force injuries, according to the medical examiner.
She always also discovered by a bear, and the medical examiner was unable to determine what damage the bear caused and what Toner did, according to CBC.
When Toner discovered his ex's body had been discover, he hitchhiked to Lake Country in British Columbia, where he was arrested.
The career criminal has been convicted of a series of violent crimes in the past, including five assault-type convictions, sexual assault, and uttering threats, according to CBC.
Ware's father, Don, remembers his daughter as 'my little bundle of joy' and said he was 'lost and lonely' since her passing.
The murder charge was dropped after the medical examiner couldn't determine Ware's cause of death as her body was found in a wooded area with a bear
Ware and him had gotten into an argument inside her home and he admitted to police that he hit her and caused her to fall down a flight of stairs, where she landed unconscious. After discovering her dead in the morning, he dropped her body off in the woods
'I stare out the window waiting for her,' his victim impact statement read, according to CBC. 'My little helper around the farm is gone.'
Her mother, Karla, expressed similar statements in her impact statement and expressed feeling despair and loneliness without her daughter. She also said it felt like her daughter's 'life was being erased' after Toner set fire to her home.
Her parents had been the one to discover her missing after she didn't show up to work. When they arrived to her farmhouse, they discovered it on hire and her missing.
Toner blamed drugs for his decision to harm Ware and called her a 'fantastic human being,' according to CBC.
Just a mere six weeks before her death, Toner had finished serving a five-year sentence for drugging and raping a 15-year-old girl in 2015, according to CBC.
Between 2019 and 2020, Toner had been released from prison three times and reoffended for issues all involving women, drugs, and violence, according to the outlet.
