Jury selection begins in Staples murder trial

(Update)

A shocking, double-murder that shook the town of Binbrook 16-years ago, is at the centre of what’s expected to be a lengthy trial which began today, in Hamilton. Jury selection is now underway, in the first-degree murder trial of 51-year old mark staples — the adopted son, of one of the victims.

It was a bitterly cold winter day, on January 20th, 1998. That’s when worried family members told police that Bill Staples and his adopted daughter Rhonda Borelli were missing from their home.

67-year old Bill Staples owned a farm in Binbrook that he shared with his 36-year old daughter. When police arrived there, they suspected foul play immediately. There was blood on the floor of a barn on the property, and Bill’s pickup truck was missing. It wasn’t long before police began to focus their investigation on Mark Staples, the adopted son of the missing man, who owned a fledgling golf business that had gone bankrupt.

Police believed that Bill and Rhonda were killed, so that Mark could inherit an estate worth an estimated two-and-a-half million dollars. Six months would pass before the remains of Bill Staples and Rhonda Borelli were discovered in a Park n’ Fly parking lot near Pearson Airport. They had been stuffed into the cab of Bill’s pickup truck; and their bodies were badly decomposed. It was determined that Bill had died from a series of four to seven blows to the head, which shattered his skull. No cause of death, could be established for Rhonda Borelli.

It took police 12 years to gather enough evidence to arrest Mark Staples and charge him with two counts of first-degree murder in June of 2010. And it’s taken another four years, to bring this case to trial. Jury selection will continue on Thursday.

No date has been set for opening arguments before the court but it’s expected that this will be a lengthy trial as long as three months, perhaps.
There are 85 names on the witness list — including Halton Regional Police Chief Stephen Tanner — and Don Staples, the deceased brother of Bill Staples. A video statement taped before his death, is expected to form part of the evidence in the case.