No chance of parole until 2046: accused sentenced to life in prison for murder of Windsor mother

Windsor, Ont. -

Jitesh Bhogal, 31, was sentenced to life in prison for the first degree murder of Autumn Taggart, killed in June 2018.

Justice Renee Pomerance said Wednesday he must serve 25 years before applying for parole.

WARNING: Graphic details.

“You are a young man Mr. Bhogal,” Pomerance said to Bhogal via virtual court to the Southwest Detention Centre. “I hope that you are able to take steps during the period of your sentence to turn your life around and take opportunities for rehabilitation.”

Bhogal was convicted of first degree murder by a jury in December, after a seven-week trial.

Pomerance says she rejected Bhogals’ evidence that he tried to perform CPR on Taggart’s lifeless body after he realized she was dead.

“It does not make sense that he (Bhogal) would inflict this level of violence on Miss Taggart, cover her nose and mouth for three to five minutes to stop her from breathing and then try to revive her,” Pomerance told the court.

At trial, the jury heard evidence, Bhogal covered Taggarts’ face to get her to stop screaming.

Court heard Taggart suffered multiple bruises to various parts of her body but she died from neck compression and suffocation.

While Bhogal admitted to covering her face, he vehemently denied sexually assaulting her.

For the jury to return with a verdict of first degree murder, Pomerance told them they had to believe, beyond reasonable doubt, Taggart was sexually assaulted.

Before he was sentenced, Bhogal was allowed to speak to the court, from SWDC, where he was dressed in an orange jumpsuit, in a cinder block room, alone.

“Its hard to express the sorrow and remorse I feel.” Bhogal told the court. “I am happy for the family that they have a sense of justice, that they can move on.”

Bhogal then took a long pause before concluding with the words “Part of my soul died that day as well. The realization of what happened that day is hard to live with.”

Crown Attorney Kim Bertholet submitted nine Victim Impact Statements to the court, for consideration of Bhogals’ sentence.

Among them, Taggarts’ biological mother Tammy Spratt.

“I didn't just bury one child,” Spratt wrote. “I buried all the little girls that I loved when she was growing up.”

Spratt describes her daughter as sassy, clever and curious.

She says she buried her newborn infant, and her intelligent grade schooler.

“I buried my adult daughter who was a fantastic mother, a loving and carefree spirit and very vocal in her beliefs.” Spratt wrote. “I buried them all. I will never have any of them back because she was taken from me much too soon.”

Various family members wrote letters to the court, all of which described an incredible amount of trauma and suffering Taggarts’ murder brought on their extended family.

Terra Armstrong, Taggart’s cousin says she has lost the ability to feel safe in her own community.

“If something like this could happen to my cousin it could happen to anyone. It could happen to me,” says Armstrong.

Another cousin, Jessee Brown says she drove to Windsor from Muskoka to help the family, and she volunteered to go to Taggart’s home to collect personal belongings for Taggart and her son.

“She wasn’t physically there, but she was everywhere in that space.” Brown describing it as “a home that was lived in.”

“My family suffered not only because we lost her (Taggart) but after months of no answers we lost our faith in humanity,” Amber Gelinas told the court, another of Taggart’s cousins.

“There is a burning rage inside of me that I can’t seem to put out no matter how hard I try,” Gelinas wrote.

Krystle Sherwin, who is now married to Taggart’s sons father, read her own Victim Impact Statement.

She says her husband lost his best friend and his first true love when Taggart was killed, although they knew her as Maya Madolyn.

In the years since the murder, Sherwin says Taggart’s son, “..has expressed how he feels guilty about not getting help sooner. He thought she (Taggart) was just asleep the next morning.”

“He was a witness to things no nine-year-old should be,” says Sherwin.

When asked for comment, defence lawyer Peter Thorning says they have nothing to add, but tells CTV News “We are considering whether an appeal will be filed.”