Elderly Ontario woman’s killer awaits sentencing

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Alberto Araujo and Alexander Bates used to be close friends.

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That was before Bates molested Araujo’s 14 year old daughter — a crime for which Bates served three years in prison — and before Bates subsequently murdered Araujo’s elderly mother Maria, and then bound, tortured and savagely beat almost to death both Araujo and his mother-in-law, Lynda Gallandt, in a 2018 ambush than shocked the small Ontario town of Smithville.

That community, about an hour from Mississauga, is where the family had moved in the dead of night in fear of Bates.

Niagara Regional Police shot Bates as he emerged from the bloody scene at the Araujo home in Smithville, where his victims had both been beaten about the head so severely that Gallandt was in a coma and needed dozens of stitches to put her cranium back together and Araujo suffered a brain aneurism as a result a few months later.

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Bates was shot after he pointed a fake gun at police when they arrived at the scene.

He has been in a wheelchair since.

Bates was sentenced to 13 years in prison by Judge Joseph De Filippis for the attack on the family on two counts of attempted murder.

He was also later charged with the murder of 83-year-old Maria Araujo.

On Wednesday, Bates, who is now 50, appeared in Brampton court before Justice Bruce Durno to be sentenced for the murder of Maria Araujo; he has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the case.

Although sentencing was postponed until after victim impact statements can be read in late August, the Crown outlined the horrific details case against Bates on Wednesday.

The story begins with the friendship between Bates and Araujo and their mutual interest in motorcycles.

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When a bad motorcycle accident sidelined Araujo in 2012, his buddy Bates offered to help out the family while Araujo recovered in hospital.

That’s when the grooming and sexual interference began with Araujo’s daughter, crimes that came to an end when the child’s mother saw text messages pertinent to the case.

Bates went to jail for three years for that.

The fear that Bates would eventually come looking for the daughter prompted the family to leave Mississauga and move to Smithvillle.

Then came December of 2018 and Bates’ rampage of violence and killing toward the family. Before he showed up at Araujo’s house to slash the tires on Araujo’s vehicles and then tie the man up and torture him — later tying up and torturing Araujo’s mother-in-law as well — Bates had already strangled Aruajo’s mother, Maria.

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The courtroom was cautioned before evidence photographs of the deceased were presented. Harrowing details were disclosed of the damage done to the elderly woman as she had the life choked out of her and was beaten about the head and shoulders.

The pattern of her broken necklace was embedded in her neck, noted as evidence of the force used.

Bates went to Maria Araujo’s Mississauga house looking for his former sex victim, as the girl had been living with her grandmother. But the girl was away that week, staying with her biological mother.

According to the testimony read out in court, it appears Bates rifled through the house and through the granddaughter’s bedroom, looking for items belonging to the young woman.

The dead woman was found in her Green Meadow Cr. home by her niece.

Bates made a living will in 2018 before he set out on his killing spree, a video in which he leaves his worldly goods to his wife but cautions potential viewers to, “Wait until I’m dead to watch this.”

Bates was remanded in custody until August 24.

lbraun@postmedia.com