'I'm proud of myself. I finally did it, I took someone's life'

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following story includes descriptions and language that some may find disturbing

In a series of Skype chats, Johnathan Townsend detailed his plan to kill a person he referred to as  "the stripper", outlining how he was going to poison the woman, cut up her body and grind up the remains, the court heard Friday at his first-degree murder trial.

He began talking about killing Corellie Bonhomme, who had been staying with him, a few weeks before the body of the 42-year-old exotic dancer was discovered in his Lake Street apartment on Aug. 8, 2013.

Det. Const. Doug Erkkila located the conversations between Townsend and a young person when he did a forensic examination of the accused's laptop, which had almost 36,000 messages in Skype. 

Townsend, 21, has pleaded not guilty to the charge. 

The city police technological crime unit officer spent the day on the witness stand, taking the jurors through the chat logs, reading out the relevant portions. 

Contact between Townsend and the other individual began in May 2013 and he started talking about Bonhomme on July 17.

"I showered yesterday with a girl (smiley face)," he wrote. "A real live female in my apartment, naked in my apartment. She saw my everything. I saw her everything."

Calling it the biggest moment of his life, he said "I feel like a real man (laughing face)."

He described meeting the woman in the building lobby - "she was just lying there" - when he went to pick up his mail.

She told him she was from out of town and that she didn't get her paycheque, so "I invited her in and we shared the bed."

It wasn't anything sexual, Townsend explained to the girl he was messaging and asked if she was okay with that.

Three days later, he spoke about the woman, whom he initially called "really nice,"  as the crazy stripper, describing how she had "flipped out" about a card in Dollarama that she called racist.

"She is a narcissist like me, but a rude one," he said.

"She's literally mental, she's literally crazy, not fun."

Townsend said he wasn't afraid of her, though he felt she was delusional and "f--king thinks the whole world is out to get her."

On July 24, he told the girl he had been contemplating murdering someone, "an easy target, so he could watch the light going out of their eyes and then cut them up.

"The only thing stopping me is the law, going to jail," he said, adding "my motives and logic are evil."

He then asked the girl if she still loved him, saying she was the only reason he wasn't killing everyone who had wronged him.

"I'm depressed, thinking of killing myself. I'm not going to do it."

On July 25, he was upset Bonhomme had kissed him, but he didn't want to do anything, because he didn't want to lose the free food she provided him. "I hate her."

Two days later, he called 'the stripper', as he always he referred to her, "bat shit crazy," describing an incident where she had "freaked out "when a dog jumped on her .

He said he tried to calm her down, her "insanity level was over 9,000," as she was yelling and swearing at a little kid claiming that his dog had bitten her.

"She gets mad at me and takes back the candy (she had bought him)," and "that's the thanks I get for keeping the bitch out of jail."

Townsend then messaged the girl that "the stripper is gone. If she comes back, I'm not going to let her in."

A few hours later, he was complaining that the "f--king stripper" had touched his towel "leaving facial crap from a heavy make-up wearing whore," who pours on eight pounds of make-up. 

He then suggested he could have poisoned her before she got on the bus, and she would have died in a different jurisdiction and the investigation would take place there. "It would have been a perfect crime."

On July 29, Townsend asked the girl if she was okay with him killing someone, and when she replied yes, he said "so I have your permission."

"I'm not sure if I can get away with it. What will you do if I get caught?" he queried, suggesting it would mean 10 years in jail.

The girl responded she would wait for him. 

"I hate her so much I have to kill her," he wrote, later saying "she deserves to die, she's delusional and crazy." 

On Aug. 1, Townsend talked about changing his plan, putting poison in the jelly of a timbit, rather than Bonhomme's coffee, something he planned to do the day she returned.

If that didn't kill her, it would make her sleep for a few days, and he would duct tape her mouth, and even if she lived long enough to suffocate, she wouldn't be able to fight.

He would then move her to the bathtub, slit her throat, cut her up and put her through a meat grinder.

Townsend then wondered what he could do with "the meat," pondering that he could bleach and cook it, then mix it with other meat and get rid of her over a period of time.

When he added that he wasn't sure if a manual grinder could handle the bones, the girl told him "I'm scared."

"She's dangerous. I can justify killing her, " Townsend said.

He continued to talk about how he needed to get rid of the evidence, suggesting he could get power tools to "grind her bones into powder."

Two days later, he noted he hadn't seen 'the stripper' for a week, and asked the girl if she loved him.

On Aug. 5, he announced the "stripper is coming back."

The next day, Townsend told the girl stuff is happening today, that the woman wanted to have sex with him. "It's probably now or never. I do it tonight or I'll never have another chance."

"Do it tonight," the girl told him.

Townsend then asked if it would be bad if he backed out, and the girl replied "I'll kill you as soon as I see you," adding if he didn't do it "I'll hate you."

The following night (Aug. 7), Townsend again questioned whether the girl wanted him to do it.

"Go for it," she urged him.

On Aug. 8, he said "this asshole is dead," complaining she had brought her own food, and "I'm going to kill her, spill her blood all over."

Townsend maintained that he didn't care if he got caught and went to jail forever.

At 3:36 a.m, he messaged  that "she's dead. I left too much evidence so I can't go back."

Nine minutes later, he contacted the girl on his laptop from Tim Hortons on Trunk Road, telling her he was going to get 25 years and he was going to try to go to a mental hospital.

"She died so easily it was fun," he said. "I don't care if she's dead. I'm pissed that she made such a mess. I told her to get into the tub and she wouldn't."

Bonhomme made such a huge mess that it was impossible for him to clean up the apartment, he complained.

He said he had been planning to wuss out, but he killed her because she refused to eat the potatoes he had prepared for her.

"I'm proud of myself. I finally did it, I took someone's life."

At 7:45 a.m., he messaged her from McDonalds on Trunk Road. "God nothing matters any more."

Erkkila also provided the court with an eight-page list of subjects Townsend had researched in the days prior to Bonhomme's death.

It included numerous queries about meat grinders, how to grind bones, uses for bones of dead animals, and information about first-degree murder in Canada.

During cross-examination defence counsel Jennifer Tremblay-Hall pointed out that Townsend had initially been talking about poisoning, and Aug. 1, was the first time he talked about grinding up bones.

The discussions had turned to other avenues and Townsend did the searches on July 31, she said.

Erkkila agreed the chats seemed to coincide with that.

The trial resumes Monday.