Jonathan Graham, known as Jonny to friends and loved ones, always made sure he had Sunday dinner with family.
The 29-year-old was a proud father – cracking “dad jokes” was his specialty – and was especially close to his older brother and younger sister, say those who knew him.
“His family was everything. Every Sunday he was at dinner at his mom’s house. . . . He made sure that he was always there,” said longtime friend Cassandra Southwell. “He was a family man.”
Now Graham’s family and friends are struggling to come to come to terms with how his life was cut short in a shocking fire attack that led to charges against a close friend.
Graham was found about 2:20 a.m. Tuesday near Admiral Drive and Trafalgar Street with critical injuries after being set ablaze, London police said. Bradley Joudrey, 32, of London, was charged with attempted murder and remanded in custody during a brief court appearance Tuesday.
Graham died in hospital Tuesday night, police say.
“The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the victim’s death is continuing,” police spokesperson Const. Sandasha Bough said when asked if charges would be upgraded.
Family and friends say Graham, who was flown to a Toronto hospital where he died, was close friends with Joudrey.
The two men got into a fight Monday night at a home on Noel Avenue, southeast of Trafalgar Street and Clarke Road, before leaving separately, police said.
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Less than an hour after a citizen called police to report finding Graham on fire, officers found a vehicle on Royal Crescent – blocks from the fire attack scene – as part of a hit-and-run investigation and arrested a man for impaired driving.
Investigators soon linked the man stopped on Royal Crescent to the man found on fire, police said.
Joudrey, who is to return to court Friday, has past convictions for robbery in 2016 and possessing a break-in instrument in 2009, court records show.
Graham had attended Clarke Road secondary school and worked installing flooring, said Southwell, 28, who met Graham at a New Year’s party in 2009.
“His son, Layton, was his entire life. He worked so hard to give Layton the life he knew he deserved,” she said. “Jonny was the kind of person that no matter what he was going through, he always wanted to make everybody else around him happy and always make sure that were OK.”
For Trista Brunkard, Graham was like a brother, because he always looked out for her, she said.
“It still doesn’t feel real,” said Brunkard, 30, who was with Graham’s sister, Sumer, and mother in the hospital during his final hours.
“He was very sweet and charming, lovable. He had this smile that would truly light up any room,” she said of Graham, the self-proclaimed “best-looking man in the world.”
But it was his role as father to nine-year-old Layton that Graham took most seriously.
“His son was definitely the No. 1 thing in the world,” Brunkard said. “He loved that little boy more than anything.”
Graham’s sister, Sumer, 28, said the last two days have been a nightmare.
“We used to say we were twins because we were so close,” she said in Facebook message exchange. “It feels like a part of me is gone.”
She described her older brother as a master story teller with a penchant for “dad jokes.”
“He could make almost anyone laugh,” she wrote, adding her brother had struggled in the past but was working hard recently to create a better future for himself and his son.
“I was so happy to finally have him see that he was amazing and he deserved everything in the world and more. Unfortunately, now, I’ll never see him reach those goals,” she wrote.
This is the second time someone has been set ablaze in London in the last year.
A London man, 34, is charged with attempted murder after his 67-year-old father was critically injured after being set ablaze in the Glen Cairn neighbourhood on July 25, 2021. The case remains before the courts.
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