Video of a man pushing a green bin was played in the second-degree murder trial of Christopher Garnier on Thursday afternoon.
Garnier, 29, is accused of killing off-duty Truro police officer Catherine Campbell in September 2015. He is also accused of improperly interfering with her body.
Garnier has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Sgt. Charla Keddy, a member of the RCMP since 2001, was one of the witnesses to testify at the trial on Thursday.
Keddy told the court she was tasked with going to an apartment at 5714 McCully Street and speaking with the resident – Mitchell Devoe – to see if he would consent to police searching his apartment.
Keddy said Devoe agreed to the search but police decided instead to hold the scene and wait until a warrant was available.
While waiting for the warrant, Keddy said she canvassed the area for any potential surveillance video. During which time she spoke to an employee of Soma Laser who showed her their video from the morning of Sept. 11, 2015.
READ: Jury sees video of Catherine Campbell with her alleged murderer at bar, kissing
The video showed an individual – which Keddy identified as a man – coming from the back of 5714 McCully Street and walking towards Soma.
About a minute later, the individual returned with a green bin. The person could be seen rolling the green bin back to the McCully Street property, at one point, slightly lifting it over what Keddy described as a 4×4 piece of wood.
Once back at the property, Keddy told the jury the white object being moved around on the screen was a mattress. Shortly after, the video showed the individual drag the green bin from the area of 5714 McCully Street across the screen. Keddy said at one point, the person could be seen using two hands to pull the bin.
While playing a differnt camera angle from the same business, Keddy described how something fell from the green bin as the individual was rolling it. The person with the green bin bent over and picked it up, throwing it on top of a nearby building.
A short time later, the individual is seen coming back into the view of the camera and returning to the McCully Street property.
Once there, Keddy described how a light, believed to be a flashlight, was used near the fence separating Soma and the McCully Street apartment. She also described a mattress being moved around on the video.
Some members of Catherine Campbell’s family sobbed as the video played.
At no point during her testimony did Keddy identify the man in the video as Garnier.
WATCH: Crown alleges Christopher Garnier struck, strangled Catherine Campbell in opening statements at Halifax murder trial
Keddy says once she watched the video from Soma she contacted other investigators to inform them they may be looking to a green bin and asked the staff at Soma to make a copy of the video for her. She also says she spoke to Brittany Francis – the girlfriend of Christopher Garnier – to get the passcode for a cell phone and to get a statement from her.
The Crown has alleged Garnier met Campbell, 36, at the Alehouse in downtown Halifax the day after he and his girlfriend broke up.
Carla Ball told the jury earlier this week that the pair went back to an apartment on McCully Street belonging to Garnier’s friend — where it’s alleged he struck Campbell in the head and strangled her before placing her body in a green bin to dispose of.
Her body was found under the overpass to the Macdonald Bridge.
The case is scheduled to last five weeks at Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax.
The trial will not hear evidence on Friday. Testimony is scheduled to resume Monday at 9:30 a.m.
Comments