Deeply disturbing details of how Kelowna father Jacob Forman killed his family were heard during his sentencing hearing in B.C. Supreme court Monday morning.
Forman had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder of his wife and two counts of first-degree murder of his daughters, all on Dec. 17, 2017.
Crown prosecutor Murray Kaay read the facts while Forman, dressed in a red jumpsuit, sat with his head down in the prisoner’s box.
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During an argument between Forman and his wife, Clara, about his excessive drinking, he hit her on the head with a small sledgehammer.
“What are you doing?” were the last words Clara said before her husband struck her with the sledgehammer twice more, according to a statement given to police by Forman.
Forman then took his daughters to church, telling them that their mother was sick and unable to join. Upon their return, he decided to kill them both.
“He thought it would be better for them to go home to heaven than to grow up in a world where daddy had killed mommy,” said Kaay.
Kaay said Forman told his daughters they were going to play a “game,” which Forman used to play when he was younger.
He first took his daughter Yesenia into her room, instructed her to stand on her head for a few minutes, then get up and raise her arms, causing her to pass out.
“He continued to choke her until her heart stopped,” Kaay said.
He used a toy horse – the kind with a head on a stick – to apply more pressure to her throat.
After Yesenia was dead, he murdered Karina in the same way, according to Kaay.
He put his wife’s body into a sleeping bag and his daughters’ bodies into two large plastic containers and placed them in the garage.
Forman then “loaded his gun and got ready to kill himself,” according to Kaay, but after hours of deliberation, decided otherwise. He went to work the next morning.
The sentencing hearing is ongoing.
The Crown is seeking consecutive sentences for the murders, resulting in 35 years in prison before a chance at parole. The defence is seeking parole eligibility after 25 years through concurrent sentences.
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