Defence points finger at victim’s co-worker at murder trial

A co-worker of a woman killed in her Southdale home in 2019 emphatically denied a lawyer’s accusations that he was involved in the slaying, for which her son is on trial.

The Free Press is not naming the 51-year-old victim, as it would identify the accused, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The son is now 23, but was 16 at the time of the woman’s death. He is accused of second-degree murder.

The victim was found dead in her bed at her home on March 26, 2019.

In an opening address to jurors last month, the accused’s lawyer, James Lockyer, said he intended to argue it was the co-worker who killed the woman, not her son.

The man was interviewed once by Winnipeg police shortly after the killing, but was not charged or named as a suspect.

The co-worker, a 54-year-old man who can’t be named under the terms of a publication ban, told court: “no sir, not at all,” when Crown prosecutor Adam Bergen asked him whether he had anything to do with the woman’s death.

On cross-examination, Lockyer argued the man had the opportunity and motive to kill the woman.

The lawyer accused the man of unusual behaviour, including turning around surveillance cameras in his home on the morning of the killing.

The man told court he’d done so as a joke, after one of his children said something to the effect of “Mommy’s watching us.” He said he turned the cameras back a short time later.

Lockyer suggested the man had turned around the cameras to hide his movements and that his wife put them back later in the day.

“You turned them, because you had involvement in (the woman’s) murder,” Lockyer said.

“That, sir, is an outright lie, what you just said,” the co-worker replied.

During questioning from the Crown, the co-worker said he thought he had a cordial working relationship with the woman, whose cubicle was near his at a downtown Winnipeg office.

He even thought she had showed a romantic interest in him after learning he had separated from his wife, which he did not reciprocate, he told court.

She later filed a complaint to human resources in May 2018, saying he had acted inappropriately verbally and physically toward her. The man told court those claims were baseless.

The complaint was looked into by managers and closed with insufficient evidence.

The co-worker told jurors he was advised by management and his union to have no contact with the woman, who was transferred to another department. He avoided her from then on, he said.

He told court he learned of the woman’s death at the office.

He was later asked to speak with police, which he did in early April 2019.

Lockyer suggested that the man was livid after the complaint. The witness disagreed, only saying he was “upset” over what he said were false accusations.

The lawyer also suggested the man knew where the victim lived or could have found out by following her or looking her up on Google Maps, which the co-worker denied.

The woman had said prior to her death she was concerned about footprints found in the snow near her house. The co-worker denied ever going to her home.

On the day of the murder, the co-worker was captured on surveillance cameras coming into the office building’s secured entrance at around 9:30 a.m. and heading out to get a coffee at around 11:28 a.m. The woman had already been pronounced dead by that time.

The co-worker maintained that he was at work that morning, as Lockyer needled him about his “pretty good alibi.”

“I’m going to suggest to you, sir, that either you did step out that morning, or you arranged for someone to do to (the victim) what you wanted,” Lockyer said.

“I would say you are wrong,” the man replied.

The co-worker’s cross examination continues Tuesday in front of the jury and Court of King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne.

This is the second time the woman’s son has gone to trial for her killing.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca