A BC Supreme Court judge is expected to deliver her verdict today in the first-degree murder trial of three young men accused of killing an Abbotsford, BC, couple during a 2022 home invasion.
The court earlier heard that 77-year-old Arnold De Jong died of asphyxiation, with his entire head and face wrapped in duct tape, while 76-year-old Joanne De Jong had been hit with a T-shirt and had her throat slashed.
Abhijeet Singh, Gurkaran Singh and Khushveer Toor pleaded not guilty earlier this year.
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The three men, all in their 20s, were arrested in December 2022 after the De Jongs’ bodies were found at their Abbotsford home that May.
Prosecutors say the suspects had done cleaning work there before the home invasion and that the men killed the couple before stealing checks, credit cards and a power washer.
The court heard during the trial from the judge alone that one of the accused had access to news articles about the murders and conducted “extremely damning” Google searches on the murder penalty in Canada.
Defense attorneys argued the evidence did not prove the murders were planned, telling the judge it was a “robbery gone wrong” and the highest sentence available in the case would be manslaughter.
&copies 2026 The Canadian Press
