EDMONTON – The first-degree murder trial of Joseph Laboucan has closed with a not guilty plea, 45 minutes of evidence and no challenge from the defence.
Laboucan was charged in the death of 33-year-old Ellie May Meyer, whose body was found in a field near Fort Saskatchewan in May 2005.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman is expected to deliver a verdict Monday.
Defence lawyer Laura Stevens opened the trial Monday in Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench by saying she would call no witnesses and challenge no Crown evidence.
The Crown read its evidence, which included the fact that Meyer was missing a portion of one pinky finger.
In the preliminary hearing, a young friend of Laboucan testified that Laboucan once showed her a finger he kept in a bread bag in the fridge of a hotel room.
Crown prosecutor Doug Taylor submitted more than 900 pages of preliminary hearing transcripts as evidence.
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“There will be no argument of that evidence,” Stevens said, in essence forcing the Crown to prove its case in isolation.
At the time, Meyer’s was the second woman’s body within three weeks to be found northeast of Edmonton. In a larger pattern, she was the 12th to disappear from Edmonton’s streets since 1989. Almost all of those women worked the streets of the city, particularly along 118th Avenue.
The discovery of Meyer’s body in a farmer’s field was one of the last to be investigated by Project Kare, a joint RCMP-Edmonton Police Service task force looking into the disappearances and deaths of people involved in “high-risk lifestyles.”
While some cases remain open, Joseph Laboucan was charged with Meyer’s death in September 2008.
A decade apart in age, Meyer and Laboucan both grew up in Fort St. John, in northeastern British Columbia. Common acquaintances of the two say they were friends at one time.
Laboucan is already serving a life sentence for the April 2005 murder of teenager Nina Courtepatte.
Laboucan is the second man to be charged in connection with the string of missing women. In 2007, Thomas Svekla was charged in the deaths of two women. He was convicted of killing Theresa Innes, 36, but acquitted in the death of Rachel Quinney, 19.
Michael Briscoe has also been charged in the deaths of Courtepatte and Meyer. He is awaiting a new trial on the Courtepatte matter and will be tried separately from Laboucan for Meyer’s death.
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