Accused maintained innocence in interrogation video

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This article was published 19/11/2019 (2464 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Confronted with mounting evidence pointing to him as Christophur Baur’s killer, James Morris continued to tell police he had nothing to do with the 2015 slaying.

“There’s a lot of pieces here pointing to one thing,” Winnipeg Police Service Det. Sgt. Wade McDonald said, four hours into a video interview played Tuesday for jurors. “We know you did it.”

As he had under repeated questioning, Morris maintained his innocence, claiming he had called Baur looking to buy cocaine, but Baur never showed up.

“The fact of the matter is I had no involvement in Chris going missing,” Morris insisted.

Jurors have heard police found Baur’s body wrapped in a blanket and plastic underneath the porch of Morris’s Magnus Avenue home on Feb. 15, 2015 — six weeks after he had been reported missing. Baur had been bludgeoned, stabbed and strangled.

Following his Jan. 3 disappearance, investigators with the WPS missing persons unit learned Baur was involved with the drug trade and obtained call records for his two cellphones. The call record of Baur’s dealing-related phone showed Morris had called him three times the day he disappeared.

Morris was interviewed by a missing persons unit investigator Feb. 3 and released without charge. Twelve days later, police executed a search warrant at Morris’s home and arrested him for second-degree murder.

Police were still searching the home and had not yet found Baur’s body when McDonald and Det. Sgt. Scott Taylor began interviewing Morris shortly after 10 a.m.

Morris told the investigators he had a drug problem, and had been spending up to $200 a day on cocaine after receiving a $3,800 tax return in late December. Baur, he said, was his drug dealer.

“Whenever I called him, we would meet up and he would supply me with cocaine,” Morris said.

Morris said he was home Jan. 3, when he called Baur three times looking to buy cocaine. He said on the final call at 8:50 p.m., Baur told him he had to “reload” and would get back to him when he had the drugs.

Morris said he did not immediately call Baur when he didn’t show up later, but claimed he continued to call Baur in the days that followed.

Phone records, however, showed no indication Morris called Baur after Jan. 3.

“I’m concerned about your phone records,” Taylor said. “He was planning to deliver drugs to you that day (and) he didn’t show up. Nowhere in your phone records does it show that you called (again).”

“I definitely called him sometime after that,” Morris insisted. “It has to be there. I can’t explain why, because I know I called him.”

Morris said he quit drugs immediately after Baur disappeared, saying they had cost him his marriage and family.

“I do find it odd that you were able to quit drugs in the blink of an eye,” Taylor said.

“It wasn’t the blink of an eye… I couldn’t find any,” Morris responded.

At 5 p.m., seven hours after Morris had been taken into custody, Taylor told him police had found evidence of a large amount of blood in his home. The disclosure came after Morris said that but for a bump to his head, there had never been a significant amount of blood spilled in the residence.

“I can tell you there is a lot of blood in your house,” Taylor said.

“No way. That’s crazy,” Morris said. “I can’t explain any of it. I have no idea.”

A short time later, Morris said he wanted to talk to a lawyer.

Jurors will view the remainder of the interrogation video today.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca