“Do you know Terry?”
It was a question that came as no surprise, Crown witness Lucious Moreau told jurors Thursday. People were always stopping by the apartment building, he testified, looking for Terry Pringle.
But this question didn’t come from a friend or a family member. The Crown alleges it came from one of three people — one man and two teens — sent to Pringle’s Stewart Street apartment on Nov. 25, 2016, to beat him up for talking about Samantha Hall.
Pringle, 42, was found dead on his apartment floor, hours later.
Jordan Osborne, 26, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His jury trial began this week.
Earlier in the week, Hall testified she was upset because she heard Pringle had told their landlord she was selling drugs to a biker gang.
She testified she wanted him “roughed up,” and sent a message to mind his own business. She said the plan was formed at a Bethune Street home, where Osborne and some others had gathered.
Moreau was the Crown’s third witness. He said he had lived in the same building as Pringle for a few months, and knew him because he went to school with Pringle’s children.
On the night Pringle was killed, Moreau told court he was smoking weed and watching a movie in his apartment when he heard banging outside. He opened the window and saw three men trying to get into the building. Moreau testified that it was dark, and he couldn’t make out who it was.
The Crown played a video in court. It was taken from a cellphone. Much of the video is too dark to see clearly. But voices can be heard on it, and one person can be heard asking how to get into the building.
Moreau identified the voice that answers as his. He can be heard telling them that he can’t let them in because he can’t access the door where Pringle enters and leaves the building.
After some back-and-forth conversation, Moreau told court he closed his window and returned to his movie.
On the tape, one voice can be heard saying, “We can’t get in through the front window.” A voice replies, “We can’t get in through the front door.”
A few hours later, Moreau testified, Hall returned to the building and the two of them took their dogs outside for a walk.
Moreau told jurors he noticed the window to Pringle’s basement floor apartment was open and the blinds were askew. Worried, he called Pringle’s name, and got no answer.
He then went into the apartment through the window, he told court, and found Pringle dead on the floor. He called out to Hall, telling her to call an ambulance.
Crown witness changes testimony:
Earlier in the day, Crown witness Hannah Moore admitted she didn’t remember much of what happened on Nov. 25, 2016, while under intense cross-examination from Osborne’s attorney, Magda Wyszomierska.
Moore had previously told court that she heard Osborne say someone was getting on his nerves, and that he wanted to kill him. She also said she saw Osborne put a hammer in his pants before leaving that night, and when he returned, it looked like there was blood on that hammer. She told jurors she watched as the hammer was cleaned with bleach.
But under Wyszomierska’s questioning, Moore admitted that she was drinking and smoking pot that night, and that she doesn’t have a clear memory of much of what happened.
Referring to inconsistencies between her statement to police and her testimony on Wednesday, Wyszomierska suggested she was confused about what happened, and Moore agreed.
Moore also agreed that she didn’t know who Osborne was referring to when he talked about the person getting on his nerves, and acknowledged it was possible he never said that.
But Moore said she had a clear memory of the hammer being cleaned, despite the fact that she told police she went to the basement when that happened.
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