It sure seems like a light sentence for killing your intimate partner – you’d hate to think the reason was due to the victim being a man.
Still, Deeanna Charrion, 38, wept because she thought she was going home.
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But Superior Court Justice Breese Davies rejected the shockingly lenient two-years-less-a-day conditional term for manslaughter proposed by her lawyer – and also the “disproportionate” eight-year prison sentence suggested by the Crown.
Instead, the judge sentenced her to three-and-a-half years for causing the death of her partner, Danforth chef Gerrard “Gerry” Martin.
By January 2024, the judge said Martin, 60, and Charrion had been in an intimate relationship for about five turbulent years and both were addicted to alcohol and drugs.
Relationship ‘abusive and violent’
Martin often accused her of infidelity and Charrion would “blow up” and scream, swear and sometimes hit him.
“Their relationship was abusive and violent,” Davies said.
Martin, who had won $250,000 in a lottery, lived alone on the second floor of a semi-detached house at Jones and Danforth Aves. and the couple’s fights were so disruptive the landlady on the main floor was taking steps to evict him.
On Jan. 22, 2024, the couple went to Maple Leaf Sports Bar and Grill but at some point in the afternoon, Charrion took Martin back to his apartment because he was very drunk. She went on to a second bar and then returned to the Maple Leaf where she stayed until 11:35 p.m.
Charrion was “very drunk” when she arrived at Martin’s apartment, describing her intoxication level as an “eight out of ten.”
She was also furious Martin had been calling her incessantly – more than 25 times between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. – and Charrion testified their ensuing argument “went south” from that point.
Fell down stairs from second-floor landing
About 20 minutes after she arrived, Martin fell down the stairs from the second-floor landing and crashed through the door on the main floor. Less than a month later, he died from injuries that included broken ribs, shoulder blade, arm and vertebrae as well as a subdural hemorrhage.
In December 2025, the jury acquitted Charrion of second-degree murder but convicted her of manslaughter, Davies said, meaning they rejected her plea of self-defence but also didn’t accept that she intended to kill him.
The judge also didn’t believe Charrion’s claim Martin had pinned her against a wall and dug his thumbs into her collarbone until they both fell during the struggle but she was able to save herself.
“I’m satisfied she was the primary aggressor throughout the verbal and physical altercation with Mr. Martin. Ms. Charrion admitted that she started the argument as she got to Mr. Martin’s apartment and ‘got in his face.’ Ms. Cherrion also admitted that she pursued Mr. Martin from the kitchen to the living room and back again as he tried to get away from her,” Davies said.
“I find that Ms. Charrion deliberately pushed Mr. Martin while they were at the top of the stairs, which caused him to fall down the stairs,” she said.
The judge said Martin’s intoxication also likely contributed to his fall – a sample of his blood showed he was about five times over the legal limit and would have been unbalanced.
Killed in his own home by his intimate partner
Davies found it an “aggravating factor” that he was killed in his own home and by his intimate partner. There was “ample evidence” of a pattern of abuse toward Martin: she had slapped him and spat on him in the past and left abusive messages, including that she hoped he burned in hell and that he was a “useless a–hole” and a “f—ing idiot.”
Charrion also had a 2021 conviction for assaulting him but the judge said she couldn’t take that into account because that record should have been removed in 2024.
Davies also found it aggravating that she knew Martin was vulnerable – he had emphysema and lung cancer.
Still, the judge believed Charrion didn’t intend to kill him and it was “closer to an accident than a murder.” She’s remorseful and has been sober for two years, Davies said, and she has taken steps toward rehabilitation.
“I find that a three-and-a-half-year sentence in custody is the shortest sentence that will satisfy the principles of denunciation and deterrence,” Davies concluded.