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Almost 17 years after the deaths of Rhonda Borelli and Bill Staples, a jury is deciding whether their brother and son, Mark Staples, 51, is guilty of two counts of first degree murder.

After instructions from the judge this morning the jury was released to start deliberations.

In January 1998, Borelli and Bill Staples disappeared from the Binbrook farm where they both lived. Six months later their bodies were found in the back of Bill’s pickup at a Toronto Park’N Fly lot.

Court has heard that Mark Staples was deeply in debt with his golf club, Mulligan’s, and that his father had decided not to give him any more money.

With the deaths, he got the lion’s share of his father’s estate — more than a million dollars. The defence did not call any witnesses, but held that Mark Staples has been living like an innocent man in Hamilton, since the murders.

Staples has always denied his guilt, and his lawyers say it doesn’t make sense that he murdered his family to save Mulligan’s. He declared bankruptcy for the golf club shortly after they went missing.

(Wednesday Update)

The jury has ended deliberation for the evening.  Will begin again on Thursday.