Surveillance video of Catherine Campbell kissing the man accused of killing her at a bar was played before a Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury on Wednesday afternoon.
Christopher Garnier, 29, is facing a charge of second-degree murder in connection with Campbell’s death. The Truro police officer’s body was discovered under the Macdonald Bridge in September 2015.
Garnier is also accused of improperly interfering with Campbell’s body. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
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The Crown’s first witness on Wednesday morning was RCMP Const. Kyle Doane, a member of the Integrated General Investigate Service, which includes members of both the RCMP and the Halifax Regional Police.
Doane told the court he first got involved in the case after he helped canvass the Dartmouth apartment building that Campbell lived at on Windmill Road.
After another officer found out that Campbell had taken a taxi to the Alehouse in downtown Halifax, he sent her photo to a friend of his who worked at the bar and went to see if the establishment had any video.
The surveillance video taken from inside and outside the Alehouse was shown to the jury. In it, Campbell and Garnier could be seen dancing and being “passionate” as Doane described it, at the bar.
The pair could be seen touching and kissing on the video. At some points, Campbell’s leg was around Garnier’s waist and her arms were around his shoulders. The video later shows Garnier and Campbell leaving the bar together.
The second witness to testify was Ryan Proudfoot, a bartender at the Alehouse for more than a decade.
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He told the court he knew Garnier before the trial because the pair used to work together at the Alehouse a few years prior. Proudfoot testified he saw Garnier on the night in question. He said they spoke and Garnier told him that he and his girlfriend had just broken up.
Proudfoot also testified that he recalled seeing Garnier with a petite woman.
The third witness to take the stand was Bradley Randall, a member of the Canadian Forces who worked at the Alehouse in September 2015.
Randall also testified he saw Garnier at the Alehouse in the early morning hours of Sept. 11, 2015 and saw him kissing a skinny blonde woman before they left together.
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Det. Const. Scott MacLeod, a member of the Halifax Regional Police testified after speaking with Garnier he went to an apartment on McCully Street as part of their ongoing investigation.
While there, MacLeod said he interviewed Mitchell Devoe, who lived at the apartment and learned the mattress from Devoe’s pull out couch was missing. MacLeod said he also noticed a “single droplet of blood” in the hallway of the apartment and later located a silver chain on the roof of a building on Agricola Street.
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Mitchell Devoe, 30, was also called as a witness. He told the court he had been friends with Garnier for 16 years. On Sept. 10, 2015, he said he invited Garnier over to his apartment for some drinks and to go downtown after Garnier informed him that he and his girlfriend broke up.
Devoe said the pair drank together before heading downtown. He recalled being at a bar named Cheers but not the Alehouse. Devoe testified he was intoxicated and woke up the next morning in the drunk tank.
When he arrived at his McCully Street apartment in the morning of Sept. 11, Devoe recalled Garnier sleeping on a sectional sofa and not the pull out couch he had made up for him – but went to bed.
Several text messages between Devoe and Garnier were entered as evidence in the trial. In one message, Devoe asked Garnier what happened to the mattress from his sofa. Garnier told Devoe that he had gotten sick and threw it away but would replace it.
The Crown has alleged Garnier struck Campbell in the head before strangling her and dumping her body near the Macdonald Bridge. Garnier has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Testimony in the case will resume Thursday morning.
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