Back then Jacob did not own a vehicle. Usually he’ll have a taxi drop him down. He’d go down there on a Tuesday night and relieve the guy who he replaces early, that way he dont have to come down Wednesday morning, he’s there ready to work. The police have been down to the boat manys and manys a time when they docked asking for statements. Theyre only doing their job. Captain Glover, he can’t account for Jacob’s presence from ten-thirty to six-fifteen. Gee great. He got to sleep. He do work twelve hours a day. If you as much as drops a pen on that boat Captain Glover got that door open. You cannot walk up and down those stairs sir. Jacob’s been working with the man a lot of years and sailed with the man, very capable, one of the best ship handlers around with the highest endorsement you can get, and when youre responsible for a crew, a multimillion-dollar boat, you tend to be very careful because those boats they dont have security. Anybody could walk aboard and anybody can walk off at any given time.
Jacob could have went over and had a cold beer. Very rarely do he go up on the island itself. He could have been in his room, he could have been down doing the laundry, he could have been watching TV, reading a book. There’s a number of things you try to do. Or you go to sleep.
There’s barrels of these little what you call punts, skiffs. Flatbottom boats, not very big, some eighteen feet, some twelve. The local fishermen use them. Theyre not a seaworthy boat that you’d go out in rough weather or nighttime without any navigational aids or lights. It would be suicidal.
You can go down and cut the lines and take the whole lot of them. Anybody can at any given time. If there’s a clone of Jacob Parrott and he got Jesus boots to walk across water there’s something wrong. He has a truck and camper. Parked in his driveway for the last two years. Just moved last month.
He met Donna about eight years ago when he was dating his exwife. Donna dropped in once in a while.
As a result of the marital problems, there was a court order for him to stay away from his wife’s place and only contact her through a third party. He was charged of knocking in her door and unlawful entry. He went down to court, pleaded guilty, got a bit of probation and fined. Jacob was hoping for a reconciliation, plus the welfare of his children.
He called Donna three times that Friday. Sharon answered the phone. She said Mom won’t be home until about ten. Jacob said very well. He wanted to get ahold of her before she went away to Ontario. Donna was going to Kim’s house and Jacob just wanted her to check on the kids. Third party. The message he left—he’s not one hundred percent sure he left a message. Plus and minus there. You ask right out what the question is youre getting at about a phone call. This is all phone calls to you. It’s against the law to make a phone call? His phone calls to the girl are private. He doesnt have a recorder to record it. He can’t remember what was said what time what day when where and what week and what month. Sometimes like yesterday he was answering the telephone maybe three thousand times within an eight-hour period—how can you remember every conversation. The first time his wife walks up in person, those things stick up in the back of your brain. If you broke a leg walking in a manhole, youre not going to forget it because it’s a funny thing after your leg is broke and not funny when it’s done. When he met Donna at the house he happened to mention to her about the children and she said no problem she’d check. She was pretty straightforward.
He missed his court date because he was down in the woods around Trepassey moose hunting for a couple of days. He never dated Donna Whalen and he never asked Donna to go out in that camper. He did have drinks with Donna. When he was married Donna dropped into the house and he’d be off work having a nice beer on a hot day and she come in and they have a beer. That’s common sense of being polite.
SHELDON TROKE
One night Donna and Kim went out. The day after Jacob Parrott starts phoning. Kim and Rod Tessier had an accident on the way home. Kim was doing something to Rod when he had an accident and Jacob starts phoning. How come he’s phoning you? Sheldon asked, and Donna said he wants to get back with Kim. Then the phone calls kept on. Some days Jacob phoned three times and just a day ago back you wouldnt hear tell of him. Five times a week sometimes, two and three times a day. Sheldon went in the house one day and the answering machine was on. The red light was blinking and he went over and pushed the button and it rewound back and it was a message from Jacob. Then the phone rang again. It was Jacob and he was looking for Donna and Sheldon told him Donna wasnt there and he said he left a message and Sheldon said yes, leave another one.
Donna and Kim had a falling-out. Donna was saying things to Jacob on the phone about Kim. Sheldon doesnt know what happened. Maybe Kim was giving Rod a blow job and he had the accident. He heard Donna say to Jacob that if they get back together, he should ask Kim to get an AIDS test. Jacob said he’d have that standard anyway.
JACOB PARROTT
Rod Tessier come up and politely wiped his car out on the street so they had no transportation, Jacob had to go get his truck. Rod and Kim come up from the club loaded drunk and went over the sidewalk and kind of took the car with it. Jacob drove them home because Rod had too much beer. That was the accident.
SHELDON TROKE
Constable Bemister hauled up alongside him one night. Sheldon had two beer. He was talking to Sheldon and he smelled the beer off his breath. He said, Sheldon, you were drinking. Yes, boy, I was. He said, You know, youre not supposed to be drinking, and Sheldon said, I only had the two beer. He said, Sheldon, I got to lock you up anyway. Before he got out of the car, Sheldon was in the back of the police car for him. He was locked up for the weekend.
Next week, he talked to his parole officer. Sheldon, he said, the RCMP are looking for you. What for? You got locked up last weekend. Sheldon said, Yes, I did. The RCMP are saying they found some acid. Sheldon phoned the police and was talking to Charles Stamp and Charles said, Yes, we found acid on you and it’s sent away. We’re going to have to pick you up, and Sheldon said, All right, I’ll be over in about an hour. Charles Stamp said, No, that’s all right, we’ll see you at two. Sheldon said good enough. He phoned the penitentiary and talked to Mr Brown who works in the clothes room. Sheldon said can I bring some stuff down, radios and clothes and stuff like that and he said yes. Sheldon went over and turned himself in to the police. All this to say he cooperates with the police.
CLIFFORD WHALEN
Clifford is Donna’s brother. He used to hang out with Sheldon’s brother Raymond. They swam in Kent’s Pond when they were seven years old, that’s how far back it goes. He might not have seen Raymond for years after that and then just from being around St John’s, like running into him.
One summer Clifford was throwing a frisbee around and Sheldon was with some people. This was in Bannerman Park. The frisbee happened to go in their direction and they picked it up and Clifford went over there and said what are you guys up to today and Sheldon said we’re going around crushing heads with some pop cans. They had Clifford’s frisbee and Sheldon brandished a knife. They might have been rolling around on the ground a little bit and it was broke up and stopped. It was very common to see a knife on Sheldon, even just pinned into his belt. It was like looking at somebody with a pair of shoes on, it was sitting on his side and it was visible.
This murder of his sister, Clifford wakes up with it in the morning, he stays at work with it all day and he comes home with it at night, it’s costing Clifford his life. It’s devastated his life absolutely.
BERTHA TROKE
When Sheldon was growing up he didnt carry a knife. It was Raymond used to carry a knife in a leather case on his belt.
Sharon used to call Bertha frequent. Sharon was trying to handle Cory, and Bertha told Donna that he’s hard to handle. Donna said that Sharon had not mentioned anything to her about it.
When Agnes Whalen was in the hospital, Bertha asked Sheldon about hitting Donna. She’s supposed to have a lot of marks on her and he said no she had a little scratch on her face.
Donna did tell
Bertha a hundred times over that she had been to a fortune teller and Madeline Ryall told her there was a blond-haired man coming into her life. Donna asked Bertha to go with her to get her fortune told. Bertha said she knew what her fortune is and telling fortunes is a racket. But Donna kept telling her about this blondhaired man and that she was after meeting a lot of new friends when she went to Madeline Ryall’s.
CLIFFORD WHALEN
Clifford spoke to Donna on the phone. She was looking forward to coming to Ontario to see them and she felt that if Sheldon didnt kill her before she left for Ontario, he would kill her when she got back.
This past year his phone bills will implicate how many times he called his sister but he would hazard a guess and say seventeen times and before that he hadn’t talked to her seventeen times in five or six years. Donna had a nice house and she was happy about the material things she had.
Clifford came back for the funeral. He stayed at his grandparents. The family was doing a lot of grieving and they were all in disbelief. They were expecting to see Donna and she’s murdered. There was some fighting about what could have happened. Did Sheldon do it. Everybody had an opinion. Aunt Edie spoke about physical abuse. Donna confided in Edie. But Clifford’s mother didnt believe Sheldon killed Donna. He was working with their father at the cemetery and they got along quite well.
She was at a christening and she had kissed somebody there and Sheldon had punched this person in the face and took her and went home and Sheldon pulled in the driveway and jumped out of the car and punched the windshield and broke it and then he came around and grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the house and told her that if she didnt stop her fucking bullshit she’d be leaving in a body bag.
Sheldon thought she was coming to Ontario to stay. Yes, Sheldon was watching her kids while she was gone, but their mother was coming back to get the children. Sheldon was good with the children. The problems they had were between them.
Sheldon was into cocaine and Donna was into pharmaceutical drugs. They both abused alcohol. The worst violence took place between her and Sheldon when he was on cocaine and drinking. She was having knives held to her, being bullied and pushed around her house, having things in her house broken, getting kicked and punched.
One time they were at a club and Sheldon was quite drunk and he was accusing Donna of flirting with other men. She had left to go home and a short time later Sheldon arrived at her house. He kicked in her door and broke some windows, he was screaming and yelling in a rage, pushing her around and finally he grabbed a knife from her kitchen drawer. He put the knife to her throat and told her if he couldnt have her, nobody could have her and that all the boyfriends’ graves are shallow, she wasnt worth doing the forty years over.
Clifford suggested that she call the police on Sheldon and she told him that if Sheldon was sent back to jail to do his parole, he’d have somebody take care of her and if she didnt stop her fucking bullshit, he’d get Iris to punch her out. Clifford said make some tapes when Sheldon starts his bullshit, and she told him that was a good idea.
They’d break up and Sheldon would come to her house, telling her how much he loved her, promising her a better life. And it worked and they’d be together for two weeks and broke up again.
For Donna to sit down and have a conversation on the phone with even a friend of hers, Sheldon would make it out to be a big conspiracy against him for her to be going out to nightclubs with other men. Her jeans were too tight, her top was too low, her dress was too short. When she was talking on the telephone and joking around with her friends, he was screaming at her and quizzing her about things he was hearing her say while not listening to the other party’s part of it.
Sheldon’s brother Raymond, he went to her house, it was late at night and she let him in. They were talking, Raymond was drunk, and he was putting his arms around her and tried to kiss her. He was coming on to her. She pushed him away and he pinned her down and got a little rough with her and she was really scared and finally he left.
She had fear for Iris too because Sheldon had threatened Iris on her. Donna said theyre fucking nuts, that’s the way she put it.
Sheldon would go to the counter where the knives were sitting. He’d take a knife out of the drawer or grab a knife off the counter. She was going through their conversation a little quicker than she normally talked, she wasnt laughing so much and cracking jokes. Her life seemed to be falling apart. Before that, Clifford had talked to her and she was proud of a nice house and happy to be in St John’s with her parents. Donna took pride in looking after them as they were getting old, such as they did to Donna and Clifford when they were young. And then it come a point where she was looking for a way out and she would have moved to Ontario.
SHELDON TROKE
Sheldon knows Clifford Whalen. Clifford’s got four years on him. When Clifford was seventeen, was he in the habit of going around beating up thirteen-year-olds? Sheldon’s been arrested by police on numerous occasions and he do not ever remember being locked up for having a knife.
He never threatened Donna with no knives. He never told Donna that she wasnt allowed to go out or talk on the phone. Sheldon doesnt know what Donna was telling people.
The only time they argued over the phone is if he wouldnt answer the phone and say Donna wasnt there. Sheldon wasnt getting into that. If he starts getting into it, he’ll be doing it all the time.
Donna wore what she wanted to wear. She was a nice dresser. Donna wore her clothes tight. She wore tank tops and jean shorts. Donna went out on the front of the house in her bikini getting suntans. In summer she wore nice dresses. Sheldon was at the police station one time and there was pictures there that Donna sent. Just by looking at them pictures, it didnt appear to Sheldon that he had any control over what she wore. She had a bikini top on coming up to Buckmaster Circle.
He never threatened Donna about going to Toronto or that he was going to kill her. She asked him to babysit. He loved Sharon and Cory. There was days that Sharon wanted to go off by herself and play. Sharon knew that Cory was to go with her because he was only young and there was times that Sharon wanted to go off with her girlfriends so Sheldon took Cory to the park. He took the youngsters out on Saturdays and Sundays for drives up to Signal Hill with binoculars to let them see the whales.
Sharon’s birthday he took her out to get her ears pierced. They went in the Avalon Mall. She picked out the earrings. Missus was there. The lady that puts the earrings in this gun and clips them in your ear and Sharon sot in the chair. The lady took a marker and put a dot on Sharon’s ear and she put the stapler up to her ear and Sharon got nervous and she didnt want to get it done, so the earrings were paid for. Sheldon told her she could keep the earrings and she got her bill. She can come back any time and get her ears pierced. They went down and got something to eat and Sheldon was explaining that it dont hurt and he pinched the back of her elbow. He asked her did she feel that and she said no. That’s what it’s like, he said. All right I’ll get it done, she said, and they went back up again and she sot in the chair and when Missus was getting ready to do it, she wouldnt get it done.
JUDGE RICHARD ADAMS
Clifford Whalen went back to his motel, he ate dinner and went to his room. The telephone was ringing. Whoever was there hung up and Clifford thought maybe he just missed the call.
The phone rang again and he picked it up and said hello and the other end hung up and then eleven-thirty at night, the same thing happened. He talked to two other people that night, his wife twice and his mother once which was a total of six phone calls.
He phoned the police. It was quite late. He explained to them the situation he was involved in and he didnt want to fill out a report but if they were in the area could they make their presence known at the motel. That was the Journey’s Inn.
Clifford had made notes during the testimony and the paper he used was stamped on the back JOURNEY’S INN MOTEL and photocopies were received by the Court.
Cliffo
rd changed hotels after that. The lady at the desk didnt get those phone calls and the other lady that had been on at that time was on break.
People who had his phone number were family members.
The same day that he completes his testimony here he receives telephone calls at a hotel that he’s staying at. The accused had direct access to where he was through the notes to the Court that were given to his lawyer, Mr Lythgoe. There was one time during crossexamination where Mr Lythgoe was referring to the notes and said, I guess this must be where you are staying—he used that notepad from the hotel. So the accused had direct knowledge.
Sheldon Troke is in the Special Handling Unit, separated from all other prisoners, no contact can be made. The phones in Special Handling are turned off at ten at night.
It could be a mistake. Or there may well be people out there who are watching this case and have an interest in what people say in the witness box. To place a call, the caller would have to go through a switchboard of the hotel and ask for Clifford Whalen or for a room number. The chance of a mistake appears to be remote but we dont know who made them. They were probably made from a call box.
CLIFFORD WHALEN
The way Clifford looks at it, before his sister heard of Sheldon Troke, she was a beautiful, kind, caring, loving, honourable, brilliant young lady and Sheldon Troke took her down a path of destruction and walked her right into hell. Donna was never phoning him, telling Clifford about any abuse she went through even if she was going through it, she wanted Clifford to think that she was doing good, her life was good, she was raising her two children. Then when Sheldon Troke came into the picture, the bullshit started.
The Death of Donna Whalen Page 6
