The latest shocking murder case has been unfolding for days in a downtown courthouse busy with men accused of killing their intimate partners.
Last week, a jury convicted Godfrey Sig-Od of first-degree murder in the vicious stabbing of his ex-wife Elvie and second-degree murder for killing his daughter Angelica.
On the second floor, Kenneth Bellamy admits he caused the stabbing death of his partner Tracy Iannuccilli, but insists the 18 wounds she suffered were due to their wrestling over the knife she was wielding — but not him.
And two floors above, a jury is hearing the case of another man charged with murdering his partner — and this has an added tragic element: Three days before she was killed, Daniella Mallia, 23, had appealed for help from Toronto Police.
Instead, she was threatened with arrest if she didn’t stop contacting her ex, Dylon Dowman, the 35-year-old who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
In bodycam footage shown to the jury, a tearful Mallia met with 32 Division Const. Sang Youb Lee and Const. Anson Alfonso outside her building on Aug. 15, 2022, and told them she was afraid of her on-again, off-again boyfriend of five years. “I’m really shaky and jittery right now,” she began.
It is a harrowing video to watch, knowing what lies ahead, seeing her carrying the same black backpack with the smiley face that would later be found by her body in a pool of blood.
She shows them a flurry of threatening texts on her phone that she said he’d sent her, including: “You still breathing cause I say so. Don’t f— with me,” and, “I’m a laugh at you when I show you your played dangerous game, ain’t no coming back from death. Your (sic) done. I promise you that.”
She had pleaded “Dylon, leave me alone.”
A text replies, “Nope. I’m a f— your s—.”
After reading the texts, the police warn in the footage that it could be seen as a “he-said-she-said” and accuse her of “instigating him back.” Mallia agrees there were times she was at fault, but says her ex was the “main instigator” and she never threatened physical violence.
In the video, they ask why she messaged him again that day after telling him to stop contacting her. She was giving him one last chance to step away and let them both live in peace, she explains. She didn’t have to warn him, they tell her. She should have just cut it “clean.”
“I tried. I tried so many times,” Mallia tells them tearfully. “But it’s so hard.”
They tell her they’d caution Dowman and urge her to lock her door and call 911 if he shows up at her home. And it was good she’d shared her fears with her bosses at PetValu, where she worked.
“They’re already ready. They’ll lock the door and call 911,” Mallia says in the video.
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She was trying to do all she could to protect herself — but wouldn’t agree to give a police statement and see Dowman possibly charged criminally with threatening her.
“I’m not the type to put a Black man behind bars,” she explains. “I’m not that girl.”
And then she starts to cry in the video.
“I never wanted to do this. I only did this because I don’t feel safe,” she says while weeping. “I’m always in flight-or-fight mode. I can’t relax.”
What she wanted was a “restraining order” – they tell her she could apply for a peace bond at the Finch courthouse, but urge her several times to give a police statement. “Let us help you. You don’t have to live in fear like this.”
She can’t do it, she says in the video, angry at herself: “I’m too weak.”
Later that day, after police spoke to him, Dowman emailed to complain Mallia continued to contact him and attached screenshots: “I’m sorry Dylon, I was high on crack, I dont know what I was thinking, just answer your phone pls,” followed by, “Please call me Im sorry, I lied to police just to get you (sic) attention, and I was high on drugs.”
He was assured the texts would be attached to their report. The police then emailed Mallia: “This is a written caution to (cease) all forms of contact with him and move on with your life. Failing to do so you can get arrested. Both you and Dylon are subjects to criminal harassment.”
During their conversation earlier that day, Mallia had told officers what she thought was coming: “A f—ing storm.”
On Aug. 18, 2022, in the underground parking garage at 2265 Jane St., the terrified young woman was gunned down and left for dead.
The Crown is expected to close its case on Friday.