A man who killed an Anglican priest in Montreal more than three decades ago and was found dead inside a federal penitentiary last week had recently seen his parole revoked because of a long-standing problem with drug addiction.
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On Nov. 10, 1993, Danny McIlwaine strangled J. Warren Eling, an Anglican minister, inside the victim’s home on Atwater Ave. During one of his two trials, McIlwaine testified that he was high on crack cocaine when Eling died and suggested the priest died by accident while they were having sex.
Three decades ago, McIlwaine’s drug addiction caused him to sell all of the furniture in his apartment, his wife left him, and he worked as a prostitute to support his habit. During his second trial, he told the jury he had gone to Eling’s place to have sex and said the priest suggested they try something different. He described pulling on a bathrobe belt while performing oral sex on the priest and didn’t realize Eling was suffocating.
The Crown’s theory of the case was that McIlwaine planned to kill Eling to steal items from his home, including a computer, but his lawyer at the time, Salvatore Mascia, held the position the homicide was not premeditated and appealed a jury’s first verdict of first-degree murder. Mascia, who is now a Quebec Court judge, represented McIlwaine in his second trial and a different jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, an indication it was convinced the murder was not planned and premeditated.
The second verdict, delivered in 1997, resulted in McIlwaine’s period of parole ineligibility on a life sentence being reduced significantly, from 25 years to 10.
He was first granted day parole in 2002, but according to the most recent decision made in his case by the Parole Board of Canada, McIlwaine experienced several problems and was in and out of federal penitentiaries in the years that followed.
“Between 2002 and 2023, you were subject to 11 suspensions and three revocations (of parole), mainly for relapses into substance abuse, but among other breaches of conditions which were managed by the tightening of measures and/or the addition of special conditions,” the parole board wrote in a decision made on Oct. 3 to revoke McIlwaine’s parole again.
“On another note, your addiction to crack cocaine led to your involvement in the circumstances surrounding your crime, as you were involved in prostitution activities to finance your substance abuse. You were also in a state of intoxication on alcohol and crack when you committed your main offence. In sum, case workers note that substance abuse is directly linked to your criminal behaviour.”
According to a release issued by Correctional Service Canada (CSC) last week, McIlwaine died while in custody at the Drummondville Institution on Jan. 2. He was 62 years old.
“The inmate’s next of kin have been notified. As in all cases involving the death of an inmate, Correctional Service Canada will review the circumstances. CSC policy requires that the police and the coroner be notified,” CSC wrote in the release without stating how McIlwaine died.
The parole decision notes that he had a “history related to suicidal and self-destructive ideation” and suffered from back pain since 2010. He was also diagnosed with an incurable disease in 2011.
His full parole was revoked in October after McIlwaine’s case-management team, the people who prepare an offender for a release, determined his “risk of violent recidivism in the context of a relapse, his history of breaching special conditions despite the numerous interventions and therapies offered to (him), and a clear regression over the past year” were all reasons to believe that there was no alternative.
The parole board was also informed that two halfway houses had rejected McIlwaine as a potential resident because of his history of relapsing.
In May 2023, he tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamine and admitted to having been in contact with a drug dealer to pay his debts. Despite violating his parole conditions, his release was maintained, in part, because McIlwaine agreed to undergo a 28-day closed treatment program. He tested positive for cocaine two weeks after he completed the program.
His parole was suspended, but in March 2024, he was released to a halfway house where he was supposed to reside for a year while undergoing another treatment program. According to the parole decision, in July last year McIlwaine tested positive for cocaine on a urinalysis test and this is what led to his parole being revoked in October.