Canadian Man in Criminal Law Trial, Kills by Non-Disclosure

Hamilton, ON Criminal defense law is an unpredictable animal, given the unpredictability of the crimes brought before it. Such as murder, for example. Prior criminal law cases defending, or prosecuting murder involved weapons running the gamut from guns, knives and poison, to vehicular homicide. But it's not every day when criminal law is brought to the fore when a man is accused of murdering a woman with his penis.

Two women, in fact. And if you're not familiar with the name Johnson Aziga, you will. Certainly the folks up in Canada are becoming familiar with his name, given that his murder trial is currently before the courts.

Of course, it's a story that could happen anywhere, and everywhere. Because consensual sex is everywhere, and so too is AIDS and HIV. That's the crux of the Aziga case, and the allegation tied to his murder weapon. It's the first trial of its kind in Canada.

Actually, his penis was the link, but the ultimate culprit was his mouth and what it didn't do—allegedly fail to disclose to his various sexual partners that the man was HIV positive. The former Province of Ontario bureaucrat had been that way since 1996, yet didn't mention it to the various women who shared his bed over the years.

Eleven, as a matter of fact. Thus, Johnson Aziga is being tried on 11 counts of aggravated sexual assault. Mixed in with those 11 counts, are two counts of first-degree murder, given that two of his sexual partners have since died. A total of seven women have since become infected, including the two who did not survive. Four have so far dodged the HIV bullet from Aziga.

A generation ago the thought of a man being tried for murder by intercourse would be something out of a bad sci-fi movie, rather than something actively in the spotlight of criminal law. But this is 2008, and this is the kind of stuff that happens today.

Recently, in a courtroom in Hamilton, jurors were shown a video from one of Aziga's sexual conquests. As she lay dying, she quietly told the jury in her videotaped deposition that she would never have had sex with Aziga, if she knew he was HIV positive.

The woman, known only as 'S.B.' had dated Aziga, a former co-worker, for three months in the summer of 2001. "Did you ever bring up HIV?" a detective asks the woman in the video. "Unfortunately not," she responds quietly.

The video, which was introduced as evidence in the criminal law trial, was recorded just two years and a few months after their brief relationship—November 2003. She would die, at 51, several weeks later.

There were other women in Johnson Aziga's line of fire. A few—too few, it turns out—insisted that he wear a condom. However, the majority consented to unprotected sex with the man. Many said in their testimony they believed him to be free from disease, that they trusted him, that he had a friendly face. If he were HIV positive, surely he would have mentioned it.

One sexual partner asked him outright if he had ever been tested for HIV. Aziga is alleged to have responded in the affirmative, but that he had tested negative.

That answer was furthest from the truth.

While Johnson Aziga was a regular client at an HIV clinic in Hamilton, there was no sense amongst the workers there that he was anything but an upstanding gentleman with a grievous health problem. It wasn't until Mr. Aziga's name kept re-appearing as a contact amongst newly diagnosed women that he began to become viewed in a more suspicious light.

At one point, according to reports, as many as 20 women listed Aziga as a contact. He was arrested in August 2003, just a few months before S.B. died, ultimately killed by his penis.

Aziga has pleaded not guilty in the sensational criminal law trial currently underway in the Canadian city known as steel town, Hamilton, near Toronto. Sensational within the context of the idea of it, but tragic and sickening in its consequence. But an all-important reminder that criminal defense law knows no bounds, and criminal law cases are restricted only by the crimes, and the character of the individuals accused.