Man on trial for killing drug dealer testifies he feared associate would kill him in retaliation

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This article was published 23/11/2019 (2485 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two weeks after James Morris killed his cocaine dealer, Christophur Baur, and hid his body under the porch of his Magnus Avenue home, one of the slain man’s drug world “associates” paid him an unexpected visit, jurors were told Friday.

“He comes in, and he doesn’t think I know anything about Chris,” Morris testified. “He asks me if I had heard anything.”

Morris said the “associate” and another man spent a couple of hours drinking and snorting cocaine with him before making him an offer.

“He asks me if I can cut his drugs for him, because he can’t go to Chris’s place anymore,” Morris said.

“I’m not going to say no to these people — and it’s free cocaine. I’m an addict.”

Two weeks later, Feb. 3, 2015, Morris agreed to an interview with the Winnipeg Police Service’s missing person unit.

Jurors have heard police contacted Morris after learning he had placed three calls to Baur’s drug line on Jan. 3, the day he disappeared.

“Any idea I had of telling the truth at missing persons was (gone), now it’s more cocaine,” he said.

“As soon as I get out of there, (I was) going to get high.”

Sometime later, the “associate” returned to Morris’s house and the topic of Baur’s death came up, Morris said.

“We’re talking, and it’s clear he has plans for whoever is responsible,” he said.

“He has a gun and produces a bullet, and if he ever finds out who is responsible, he is going to take care of it.

“It’s clear I’m a dead man if anyone ever finds out. I’m afraid for my life. I’m afraid what my family is going to think of me.”

Under cross-examination, Morris refused to identify the “associate” by name.

“I feel he’s a very real threat to my safety, no matter where I might be,” he said.

Morris, 42, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Baur’s Jan. 3, 2015 death, arguing he was acting in self-defence.

In earlier testimony Friday, Morris told jurors Baur had gone to his house looking to collect a $200 drug debt.

Morris said he was in the midst of a lengthy cocaine binge after his wife and children left him before Christmas. Morris said he called Baur earlier that day, “out of reflex,” to buy cocaine, knowing he still owed Baur money.

When Baur arrived, the two men went into the kitchen, where Morris told him he had no money.

“He was annoyed, frustrated,” Morris said.

“He clearly was not happy with me not able to give him any money. At some point, he said, ‘Do you know who I work for?… You are going to get f—– up.’

“It was clearly a threat,” said Morris, who earlier testified he had always had a good relationship with Baur. “This was out of the ordinary, so I didn’t know how to take it.”

As the dispute grew more heated, Morris said he shoved Baur hard, causing him to stumble backward and knock his head on a doorpost. Baur, he said, grabbed a baseball bat that was by the door and struck him in the head.

Morris said he lunged at Baur and wrenched the bat from him. He said he hit Baur a number of times with the bat before Baur managed to shove him down the basement stairs.

“Next thing I know, I’m on the basement floor,” he said.

“I heard the baseball bat on the basement floor… and I just know he’s going to kill me.”

Morris said he jumped on Baur’s back and tried to choke him before grabbing what he thought was a knife.

“I grabbed him by the jacket and took two swings at him and he falls,” Morris said, his voice choking with emotion.

“There’s so much blood. It’s in my face, it’s in my eyes, it’s in my mouth. And I can’t think. Everything is spinning and I don’t know what to do. Very clearly, he’s not getting up.”

Morris said he cleaned himself up and moved Baur’s car three blocks away. He said it was another week before he moved Baur’s body to his porch.

“I don’t understand what happened,” he said.

“There’s so much lost… I can’t imagine what (Baur’s) family has had to face and I don’t want to. I’m sorry every single day that I wake up. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca