72 year old suburban Toronto doctor sentenced to 7 years for "manslaughter"

Peter Edwards STAFF REPORTER, The Toronto Star

An elderly Thornhill gynecologist was sentenced to seven years in prison today for fatally injecting his wife with painkillers.

Ibi Roncaioli was found dead in the family’s Thornhilll mansion on July 20, 2003. An autopsy found she died from a fatal cocktail of drugs, including painkillers and alcohol. As she delivered Joseph Roncaioli’s sentence in Superior Court in Newmarket this morning, Madam Justice Jane Ferguson said: "He was in a position of trust and authority to the deceased."

Roncaioli’s sister began to cry when she heard the verdict against her 72-year-old brother, who was found guilty of manslaughter on Feb. 16. On the other side of the courtroom, family members of Ibi Roncaioli showed no emotion.

The judge said Roncaioli’s crime "more resembles a murder than an accidental killing."
The defense has said it plans to appeal the conviction.

The judge said the doctor deserved a lengthy sentence, even though he had no previous criminal record and an exemplary work history. The judge noted that the doctor took home the painkillers from his office to treat his wife. The doctor earlier testified that his wife had been suffering from unexplained weight loss and a decline in energy. The doctor said she was afraid of physicians, which led him to treat her in the family home.

“It was intentional, not spontaneous,” the judge ruled. “…In my view, a substantial penitentiary sentence is necessary.”

Defense lawyer J. David Hobson had argued for the court to spare the doctor any prison time and to give him a suspended or conditional sentence.

Assistant Crown attorney Martin Dionne said Roncaioli should be sentenced to a term of between 10 and 12 years, and argued that he breached his trust with his wife Ibi when he injected her with painkillers.

The verdict follows an often emotional trial in which the defense portrayed Ibi Rincaioli as the author of her own sad ending, through a secretive and hard-living life. Hobson repeatedly noted during the trial that Ibi Rincaioli pushed her household near bankruptcy, despite her husband’s high income and her lottery winnings of $5 million in 1991.

In passing her sentence, the judge noted the doctor will need continued psychiatric and medical care for a series of health problems, which include a past diagnosis for Hodgkins disease and a major depression disorder. Court heard that he attempted to kill himself in January 2005.
“Dr. Roncaioli is considered to be stable but fragile,” the judge said.