Accused ‘just kidding’ about confessing to Candace’s killing

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This article was published 02/02/2017 (3484 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Candace Derksen’s accused killer admitted to killing her, then said he was “just kidding,” but later threatened a woman who overheard the remark, Mark Grant’s second-degree murder heard Thursday.

Grant, 53, made the comment in a roomful of people at his girlfriend’s apartment in early 1988, three years after Candace’s body had been found, Tania Lachance testified Thursday. Lachance, a friend of Grant’s girlfriend, had gathered with the group in Elmwood, the same neighbourhood where Candace lived and went missing, and the conversation turned to the Derksen family.

“He said, ‘I killed her,'” Lachance said. A couple of seconds later he added, “No, I didn’t. I’m just kidding,” she recalled.

A couple of days later, Grant and his girlfriend showed up at Lachance’s front door, she said.

“He told me to keep my mouth shut or he’d do to me what he did to Candace,” Lachance testified, saying Grant seemed angry at the time.

“I was scared… that he would hurt me,” Lachance said, adding she never spoke to Grant again.

She didn’t tell police about the incident until 19 years later, when the Winnipeg Police Service interviewed her about the cold case.

Saul Simmonds, Grant’s defence lawyer, suggested to Court of Queen’s Bench Judge Karen Simonsen that Lachance was an unreliable witness. “She doesn’t know something, and then she starts to fill in answers,” he said.

Simmonds pointed to what Lachance had said previously — to police in 2007 and during her testimony at a preliminary inquiry in 2009 — to suggest she wasn’t clear on times or dates of some events, yet had “an incredible memory” of certain details, such as where everyone was seated inside the suite where she said Grant made the comment about killing Candace.

“It was a significant time in my life,” Lachance said, later adding “I haven’t changed any of it.”

As the defence tried to point out inconsistencies in the witness’ testimony, Crown attorney Brent Davidson interjected several times, arguing he believed the witness had been consistent in her answers.

At one point during his cross-examination, which is set to continue Friday, Simmonds said he didn’t believe Lachance was being truthful.

“Every time you change an answer, ma’am, I suggest part of the difficulty is you’re not telling the truth,” Simmonds said.

“And that’s not true,” Lachance replied.

Candace and Lachance had been classmates in a Grade 5/6 class together, years before Candace’s disappearance. Lachance said she remembered Candace fondly.

“She was kind-hearted and I had been bullied a lot in the school, so she was a nice face and a nice person to have” around at school, she said.

When Candace went missing in November 1984, Lachance and her father went to the police station because they wanted to help look for her, Lachance said.

Simmonds questioned why she and her father wouldn’t have gone to police after Grant made his threat.

“So now you’ve solved the case!” Simmonds said. “For the next (19) years, you’ve got the information in your head and you don’t take it to police.”

Grant was charged with Candace’s murder in 2007 and was convicted in 2011. But the conviction was overturned after the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled — in a decision upheld by the Supreme Court — that the initial trial judge erred by not allowing the jury to hear evidence that could have pointed to another suspect. The Crown proceeded with a new trial and now has three more witnesses left to call to the stand before Grant’s defence team will begin calling evidence to support its arguments.