The murder trial for three men accused in the 2015 death of Reno Lee started week two on Monday.
Bronson Gordon, Andrew Bellegarde and Daniel Theodore are charged with first degree murder and committing an indignity to a body for allegedly dismembering and beheading Lee’s corpse.
On Monday, the 12-person jury heard from a witness who cannot be named under a publication ban. She was acquainted with Gordon and Theodore, but did not know Bellegarde. She told the Crown on the night of April 16, 2015 Theodore came to her house with Lee and another man that also cannot be named under a publication ban.
The witness said she didn’t know Reno Lee, but she could see that he was stressed.
“His eyes were wide,” she told the Crown.
She said they took Lee into the basement and Theodore, or “Buddha” as he is often referred to, asked her for zip ties and duct tape. She didn’t have any.
The witness left the home for the night along with her partner and son. She said she went to Gordon’s apartment to tell him what had happened. He calmed her down and gave her money to get a hotel for the night. Instead, she went to stay at her parent’s home outside of the city.
“It felt like our lives ended just that day,” the witness said while tearing up on the stand.
When she returned to her Garnet Street home the following day, she said “there was an overwhelming smell of bleach as soon as you walked in the door.”
She also said the home was trashed and there were muddy tracks everywhere. The witness says she didn’t go into the basement for days.
Two days later, she and her partner got cleaning supplies to clean up the basement. The witness told the courtroom there were pools of blood on the basement floor, and blood was splattered on the walls. A shotgun and bullet casings were also found in the basement, along with a pair of shoes and a hat that didn’t belong to them.
The Crown also reviewed photos of the basement and phone records with the witness. Cross examination is set for Tuesday. The trial is expected to last six weeks.