With the arrest and arraignment of Blake Dooley in the shooting death of his daughter last fall, John MacNeil feels she might finally get the justice owed to her memory. Christine MacNeil, 25, was shot and killed in a guest room at The Four Points by Sheraton Hotel on Laurier Street on the evening of Oct. 19.
On Thursday, four months later, Dooley, 53, of Ottawa was arraigned in Gatineau court on a charge of first-degree murder in the young woman’s death.
“I’m glad somebody has been charged,” John MacNeil said Thursday evening. “I hope they can prove it for Christine’s sake.”
Dooley, with thinning, slicked-back grey hair, a moustache and goatee, was in court for less than a minute before being led away in custody. Facing the court and dressed in a black jacket, he did not speak or enter a plea. He is due back in court March 14.
“I’ll definitely be there for that,” said MacNeil.
Dooley was arrested Wednesday afternoon after Gatineau police, aided by the Ottawa Police Services tactical squad, raided three residences in the Bel-Air Park and Mulligan Park areas of Ottawa’s west end.
He was interviewed by investigators Wednesday night and subsequently charged with first-degree murder. Dooley has a reputation for violence and firearms related charges, police said. Blake Dooley is walked to a waiting van at court in Gatineau Quebec on Thursday Feb 18, 2016. Dooley is accused of killing Christine MacNeil.Tony Caldwell / Postmedia NetworkOntario court records show that in October 1997, Dooley was sentenced to two years in jail for an aggravated assault and assault with a weapon. Following that conviction, he was given a lifetime weapons prohibition.
He was back in court in September 2009 when he was convicted of impaired driving and fined $1,100. In September 2010, he was convicted again of impaired driving and driving while disqualified and sentenced to 30 days in jail and given a two-year driving ban.
That same month, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail for breaching a court-ordered release condition in Renfrew. Gatineau courthouse records indicate that Dooley pleaded guilty in 2012 to two counts of possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition. He was sentenced to 36 months on the charges.
Police said Dooley and MacNeil knew each other, but did not know how. However, MacNeil was a known by police as sex-trade worker. They believed she worked from hotels.
Sometime before her death, MacNeil reportedly complained to police that she was victim of human trafficking and, at one point, had been co-operating with police in their investigation of her suspected trafficker.
MacNeil was the one-time girlfriend of Emilio Spezzano, brother of Giovanni “Johnny” Spezzano, a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Johnny Spezzano committed suicide in January 2015, dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
A photograph on her legacy Facebook profile shows MacNeil posing last summer on a black motorcycle that was registered to Emilio Spezzano. Christine MacNeil.Facebook / .Five months before her death, MacNeil was charged with assaulting her then-boyfriend, Emilio Spezzano, a man in his late 50s. Court records indicate she was scheduled to appear in court on the assault charge on Oct. 30 — 10 days after she was killed.
On the night of her death, several guests at the Gatineau hotel reported hearing gunshots about 8 p.m.
Police later circulated a drawing of the suspected gunman. The description provided by witnesses at the scene bears a strong resemblance to Dooley as he appeared in court Thursday.
John MacNeil, while pleased at the arrest and charge, questioned whether police have arrested all those who might have had something do with his daughter’s death. “Were other people involved who haven’t been arrested? Did this guy work for somebody else?”
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