A jury heard of a murder plot between two female lovers to kill one woman's boyfriend with an axe as part of a plot to collect $250,000 in insurance money.
Ashleigh Pechaluk, 24, is facing a first-degree murder charge in her trial, which began Tuesday. She also faces a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
Nicola Puddicombe, her lover, will face the same charges after Pechaluk's trial ends.
Puddicombe was the long-term girlfriend of Dennis Hoy, who was 36 years old when he was bludgeoned to death "as he lay naked and asleep in his girlfriend's bed," Crown prosecutor Tom Lissaman told the jury.
The homicide occurred on Oct. 27, 2006 at the couple's Queensway apartment. The assailants would strike Hoy six times with an axe. One woman was arrested at the scene.
Puddicombe was the sole beneficiary of Hoy's life insurance and pension benefits, Lissaman claimed.
CTV Toronto reported the Crown alleges the two women met at work and formulated a plot to kill Hoy.
Lissaman told the jury the Crown would show that Pechaluk had told friends that she and Puddicombe would kill Hoy.
Early plans including poisoning Hoy or making it look as if they had to kill him in self-defence.
The two women hoped to marry, buy a home and have children.
Less than two days before the killing occurred, Pechaluk is alleged to have said: "'We're gonna do it. It's gonna happen this weekend. It's gonna happen.'"
A 911 call led police to Hoy's apartment.
The trial is to continue.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Jim Junkin
