Musila sentencing delayed until fall

ST. ALBERT - The sentencing for Beryl Musila, who was found guilty last month of killing a St. Albert senior, has been rescheduled until September in a long-delayed court case.

On Tuesday morning, a frustrated Justice Larry Ackerl reluctantly granted Musila’s application to postpone her sentencing, after she hired her seventh lawyer in the case.

Musila, who was found guilty in June in the 2017 death of 75-year-old St. Albert senior Ron Worsfold, has had years of delays in her case. During her nine-week trial, Musila represented herself after firing her lawyer just days before the case was slated to start.

On Tuesday, Musila was slated to be sentenced for the crime. However, a new defence lawyer Musila obtained through legal aid, Caitlin Dick, was brought into the case and needed more time to properly represent Musila through her sentencing.

Dick argued Musila, who represented herself through her entire trial, needed representation in the sentencing. She said there were a number of issues that needed to be navigated, including a Charter issue where Musila was not given a bail hearing within the allowable 24-hour window. Dick also argued the facts coming into her sentencing could affect any future parole decisions.

Musila pleaded guilty to indignity to human remains at the outset of the trial, and Dick said there are questions on how the court proceeds with that charge.  

Ackerl eventually agreed to delay the case, though he warned Musila that sentencing would be moving forward in September, whether she had a lawyer or not.

"I do so with considerable disappointment and reluctance," Ackerl said to the court after he made his decision.

“I expect those emotions are felt even more keenly by some of those persons present,” he said to Worsfold’s family and friends in the court. Worsfold’s granddaughter, Shawna-Marie Flett travelled from British Columbia for the sentencing, only to see it delayed.

Since Worsfold’s death in 2017, the trial has been delayed a number of times, as Musila fired six lawyers throughout the process. Musila faced a preliminary inquiry in March and April 2018, after which the judge ordered her to stand trial.

Musila was originally scheduled to stand trial for the murder on April 14, 2020; however, the trial was delayed until fall 2021 and again until October 2022.

Outside the court Worsfold’s daughter, Stacey Worsfold said the delay just continues the grief process for the family.

“We've been in prison for six years along with her because you are not allowed to complete your grieving. Doing the trial six years later just puts you back into grieving,” Stacey Worsfold said.

“At some point we have to be allowed to complete our grieving and this charade of continual delays is just bullshit.”

Musila faces an automatic sentence of life in prison for the first-degree murder of Worsfold with no chance of parole for 25 years. 

The trial

Crown prosecutors told the court they believe Musila — who was living with Worsfold in his 75 Mission Ave. apartment unit where he had been the manager for 30 years — drugged and killed the 128-pound man. 

Throughout the trial where Musila represented herself, she maintained her innocence in Worsfold’s death, claiming there was a late-night intruder into the apartment unit, whom she chased away. 

On the night of July 7, 2017, the Crown told the court Musila drugged Worsfold with Ativan and then beat him to death with a hammer, and eventually stabbed him with a knife while he was drugged on his mattress.

The next day, after an interaction with Stacey Worsfold, Musila packed her belongings and left Worsfold’s apartment. Musila loaded her possessions into a taxi and took them to several locations in the region, before they ended up on a rural property in Parkland County. Included with those possessions were Worsfold's remains in a Rubbermaid container. One of the stops on the way to the rural location was at the Morinville hotel, where Musila left the Rubbermaid container in the sun on the sidewalk.

That night Musila ended up at a party, with her belongings and the Rubbermaid container in tow. Friend Patrick Tansem-Reid testified at one point during the party Musila confessed to the murder and handed him a box containing the murder weapons.

Tansem-Reid tossed the box out the door and said he didn’t want to have anything to do with Musila’s trouble.

The next morning Tansem-Reid was moving the blue Rubbermaid bin which contained Ron Worsfold’s remains when the container slipped.

“It slipped out of my hands, the lid popped open, and I saw an arm — and I freaked out,” Tansem-Reid told the court during the trial.

Tansem then called the St. Albert RCMP.

During interviews with the RCMP, Musila confessed to killing Worsfold.

"You've told me about a hammer and you've told me about a knife. Which one did you use to kill him?" the RCMP officer asked Musila, days after the crime.

"In all honesty, I used both," Musila replied.

After her interviews with the RCMP, Musila was arrested and remained in custody until the trial, which started in April of this year.

Musila will be sentenced for the first-degree murder of Worsfold and the indignity to human remains of his body in September, although the exact date has not been determined yet.