Ralph Testifies As Markham Double Murder Trial Continues To Unfold
Posted October 20, 2009 5:07 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
He’s the witness prosecutors hope will connect the dots in the bizarre murders of two women believed to have met only once.
Toronto sportscaster Rick Ralph appeared in a Newmarket courthouse Tuesday to testify about the separation from his wife Paula Menendez in the fall of 2006 and his relationship with radio sales executive Julie Crocker, both of whom were found murdered in Crocker’s Markham home in February of 2007.
Crocker’s estranged husband, 37-year-old Chris Little, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first degree murder.
On the stand, Ralph told the court he met Little several times, recalling one instance in which Little knocked on the door of a hotel room he was in with Crocker.
Ralph also admitted to having spent the night at the Crocker home in the master bedroom and testified, “I was awakened by Chris shaking my feet.”
On February 12, 2007, Little called police to that house claiming to have found his wife dead in that same bedroom.
At the foot of the bed police reportedly found a crumpled photo showing Crocker and Ralph on a St. Lucia vacation (pictured).
In the garage the body of Menendez was found hanging. Little was quickly arrested.
The Crown has painted the defendant as a jealous husband who went to great lengths to uncover his wife’s affair and ultimately execute a double murder plot he meant to look like a murder-suicide.
On Tuesday Ralph barely glanced at Little as he spoke about the beginnings of his marital problems and the separation in 2006 that led to him dating Crocker.
Ralph was out of town when the murders took place. When he returned his car had been taken in by police as evidence. It had reportedly been vandalized, the word “suffer” scratched into its roof.
Mr. Ralph’s testimony is scheduled to resume Wednesday morning.
