Edmonton man gets life for second-degree murder of ex-girlfriend
Trevor Toews walked into the police station late on a summer afternoon, carrying his two-year-old son in his arms and the guilt of a murder on his conscience.
“I want to turn myself in,” he told the civilian volunteer at the front counter. “I just killed my girlfriend. Or, I think I just killed her.”
He was telling the truth.
On Tuesday in an Edmonton courtroom, Toews pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was handed a life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
His confession that day, on July 25, 2012, came less than an hour after he had strangled his ex-girlfriend in the hallway of the apartment they had once shared.
Toews and Alexandra Noble were romantically involved for more than three years. He was 27 that summer; she was 25. Together they had a two-year-old son named Jordan.
According to an agreed statement of facts, the couple broke up sometime in early July. Toews started moving things out of the suite they shared in the Oasis Apartments on 153rd Street. Noble soon called the landlord and had Toews’ name taken off the lease.
Not long after the couple separated, Noble began seeing another man. One night, Toews returned to the apartment and caught her in bed with her new lover. Seeing them together infuriated him.
On July 25, 2012, Noble and her son were home, along with a friend named Jana Pederson. Nobel told her friend that Toews was coming over to pick up more belongings and discuss their son. Noble said she wanted the toddler to live with her full-time during the week.
Toews showed up at about 4:50 p.m. Pederson left the apartment so the two could speak in private. When she left, Toews was taking apart the kitchen table.
Only Toews knows exactly what happened next.
Less than an hour later, he walked into a police station about 10 blocks from the apartment with his son in his arms. He told police he was upset that Noble wasn’t letting him see his son often enough. He was angry that she was “sleeping around,” and said he’d walked in on her having sex with another man. He told them Noble had given him genital warts.
According to police, Toews told his story in a monotone voice and showed no emotion. He gave officers his apartment keys and told them where the body could be found.
Police rushed to the apartment. They found Noble on her back in the hallway. She had no pulse.
Officers did CPR but soon Emergency Medical Services arrived and took over. Her heart started beating in the ambulance on the way to hospital.
At 7:03 p.m., Alexandra Lee Noble was pronounced dead at the Misericordia Hospital. An autopsy the next day found the cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation.
A trial was set to begin Tuesday, until Toews pleaded guilty to the killing.
