Justin Blades was one of three witnesses to take the stand Thursday in the murder trial for William Sandeson, 24, telling the court what he saw that night was burned into his head.
Sandeson stands accused of first degree murder in the death of Taylor Samson, 22, whose body has never been found.
Blades told the court he used to work and run on the Dalhousie track team with Sandeson.
READ MORE: Jury to resume hearing evidence in William Sandeson trial Thursday
On the night of Aug. 15, 2015, Blades said he was visiting his best friend Pookiel McCabe, who lived across the hall from Sandeson at 1210 Henry Street.
While at McCabe’s apartment, Blades said the pair heard a loud bang come from inside the building.
Blades testified about a moment after hearing the noise, Sandeson came to McCabe’s apartment but didn’t say anything.
Blades said he looked inside Sandeson’s apartment twice. The first time, Blades said he saw a man slumped over in a chair bleeding from the head and saw Sandeson running around with bloody money in his hands.
The second time he peered inside, Blades said he didn’t see the man sitting at the table, but saw streak marks leading down the hall towards the bathroom.
Blades said Sandeson was talking about needing to clean up and asked him to get the car, which he refused to do.
“The Crown has always believed that this case is one where we have a significant amount of evidence, some of it is circumstantial evidence, a great deal of it is but it’s very objective circumstantial evidence,” said Crown attorney Susan MacKay.
READ MORE: Witness in William Sandeson’s murder trial heard bang, saw man bleeding in apartment
Under cross-examination, defence lawyer Eugene Tan questioned why Blades originally told the police he hadn’t seen anything that night.
Blades said he was concerned about organized crime and agreed with the defence he was scared and acted out of fear “as selfish as it sounds.”
Blades testified that he never saw Sandeson using a gun and told the court he never saw the face of the man he saw bleeding in Sandeson’s apartment. He said he put two and two together about the man’s identity after seeing a missing person’s report for Taylor Samson.
Blades agreed with Tan that he originally told police Sandeson was not the shooter when he gave them a statement, telling the court, “I’m agreeing that I didn’t see him do it.”
“There is some testimony that when you take it bit by bit, it sounds somewhat damning, but there are some very big holes there,” said Defence lawyer Eugene Tan.
“First and foremost, he didn’t see what happened. Two, that there are some sounds that he hears after this gunshot, third, that he came to a conclusion quite frankly that he did not feel that Mr. Sandeson was the shooter and he said so on a prior occasion.”
Tan questioned Blades about a window that was in one of the bedrooms at Sandeson’s apartment and whether or not he had told police on the night of Aug.15, 2015 he was concerned that there may be someone in the bedroom.
Blades agreed he was concerned and told the court the window was in Sandeson’s roommates’ bedroom and led to a half roof which had a barbecue on it.
READ MORE: Last images of Taylor Samson shown to jury in William Sandeson murder trial
Blades said the roof was accessible by a set of stairs and that it was easy to go in and out of the bedroom window to access the roof.
Chantele Comeau was the second witness to take the stand. She told the court that in the summer of 2015, she worked with Sandeson’s former girlfriend, Sonya, at a Starbucks in downtown Halifax.
She told the court that the pair would work together Sundays and Sonya would pick her up. She said on the morning of August 16, 2015, she had to move some items around in the backseat of the car to make room and that Sandeson drove them to work, something that hadn’t happened before.
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The third and final witness to testify Thursday was Nicholas Rotta-Loria. He told the court that in August 2015 he lived next to Sandeson’s younger brother, Adam. On August 18, 2015, he told the court that he was downtown at a bar and ran into a woman he knew who was upset about Samson being killed.
When Rotta-Loria got home, he found out from Adam Sandeson that his brother had just been charged with first-degree murder. At that point, his roommates told him there was something in the basement.
It turned out to be a Dalhousie backpack, a box and a small grocery bag. Rotta-Loria said he put on gloves and opened up one of the bags, which he testified contained marijuana. The roommates called lawyer Joel Pink the next day and the drugs were turned over to Halifax Regional Police.
Tan said it’s quite likely that the defence will call their own evidence.
“We’ll be calling evidence to fill in some holes or that’s the anticipation,” Tan said. “We are definitely considering it and we have contacted potential witnesses and they will be on standby.”
Although the defence says they will likely call evidence, they won’t say whether Sandeson will testify on his own behalf.
“We want to hear the balance of the Crown’s case and a decision for him to take the stand won’t come until very close to the close of the Crown’s case.”
The testimony is scheduled to resume Monday at Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax.
In total, 32 court days over eight weeks have been set aside to hear the case.
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