Sitting through a weeks-long first-degree murder trial is an emotionally draining, profoundly sad ordeal for the victim's family.  For nine weeks, Jagtar Gill's life — and her brutal death — were laid bare in front of a jury of 12 strangers, and a courtroom full of many more. Her family sat through every minute of it.  Jagtar and Bhupinderpal Gill wed in January 1997 in India's Punjab region. The marriage had been pre-arranged by their two families. The bride was 26, the groom just 20.  The couple returned to Canada where they delivered newspapers in the early morning hours, worked at a high-tech firm during the day and delivered pizza at night. Through tireless toil, they scraped together enough money to achieve a degree of financial security.  Bhupinderpal Gill and Gurpreet Ronald have both been convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Jagtar Gill. (CBC)  The couple had three children together, two daughters and a son. The family settled into a newer home in Ottawa's Barrhaven suburb, where Jagtar loved to cook their favourite Indian meals.  It all came to a violent end on Jan. 29, 2014, Jagtar and Bhupinderpal Gill's 17th wedding anniversary.  Just before 1 p.m. one of Jagtar Gill's daughters discovered her mother's lifeless body lying face down on their family room floor.  Gill had been brutally bludgeoned with a metal weightlifting bar and stabbed with kitchen knives, wounds that included a fatal slash to her neck.  Charged in her death were her husband and 37-year-old neighbour Gurpreet Ronald, who'd been carrying on a secret affair for more than three years.  Crown prosecutors accused the two of plotting to murder Gill so they could be together, and because divorce was not an option for the Gills. But it was the slightly-built smiling Ronald who committed the bloody act, the Crown alleged.  Of all the vivid testimony presented during the trial, that of Dr. Christopher Milroy, a forensic pathologist, was particularly chilling. He described how at one point in the attack, the killer switched murder weapons — from blunt bar to sharp blade.  The court was shown grisly post-mortem photographs of Jagtar Gill's sliced hands and fingers, proof, according to Milroy, that she'd struggled desperately to defend herself from her attacker.  Jagtar Gill, in the green outfit, leaves behind three children. Their father awaits sentencing, but will serve a minimum of 25 years. (Courtesy of Jagtar Gill's family)  Jagtar Gill's father, Ajit Singh, was led from the courtroom, overcome with grief. Her brother, Satnam Mann, screamed at Bhupindepal Gill: "Open your eyes and look at that picture!"  Harjinder Sidhu, Jagtar Gill's sister, sat quietly watching the scene unfold, tears rolling down her cheeks. A court officer discreetly handed her a box of tissues.  Both of the accused testified in their own defence, an uncommon move at a murder trial. Gill acknowledged that it looked bad for him, but both maintained their innocence nevertheless.  One of the Crown's key witnesses was Susanne Shields, a senior federal bureaucrat who described herself as a life coach, a feng shui expert and a clairvoyant.  Insisting she was no fortune teller, Shields described how she offered to help Ronald commune with her dead mother. During a "couples counselling" session in 2012, Ronald told her she and Bhupinderpal Gill would "do anything" to be together, Shields testified. Gill nodded in approval.  That statement — and that nod — were proof of motive and intent, the foundation upon which the Crown built its case.  Within a few weeks of the trial's start, it had to be moved to a larger courtroom to accommodate the growing audience: Jagtar Gill's loyal group of family, friends and supporters, as well as a collection of curious strangers including retired OC Transpo workers and a man who wasn't picked for the jury but showed up every day anyway.  Some days, people lined up outside the courtroom for more than an hour just to secure a seat inside.  With Wednesday's guilty verdicts, the Gill family's daily pilgrimage to courtroom 34 is over. They will be asked repeatedly over the coming days whether the decision has brought them "closure," that word people use when they don't know how else to describe the complex, often conflicting emotions that come with the conclusion of a trial like this.  As both the families of Bhupinderpal Gill and Gurpreet Ronald return to the ordinary routine of their lives, I, like many others, am thinking of the children of the convicted murderers.  Jagtar Gill's three children have lost the love and care of their mother, and now their father too, who faces at least 25 years in prison.  Gurpreet Ronald's two daughters now lose their mother, as well.  Her actions now make her a convicted murderer. Something her children, with much of their lives ahead of them, will undoubtedly have to struggle with.
Wednesday's guilty verdicts won't bring closure to any of the families wrapped up in the Jagtar Gill murder trial, Laurie Fagan writes.