Jurors in the trial for two men charged in the killing of a popular chef have heard that he was lured to a parking lot where he was stabbed nine times.
Anthony Dodgson and Tommie Holloway pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Christophe Herblin as their trial began Monday.
Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail told the court that Herblin had responded to a call of a break-in at his soon-to-be opened café in Calgary on March 14, 2020.
She said the café was beside a cannabis shop that had been robbed twice before, its safe cleaned out of $8,000 in cash and $17,000 in product.
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“(Dodgson) wanted to break into a weed shop and expected there to be (significant) value inside,” said MacPhail.
Police had searched and cleared the area. Herblin stayed in the parking lot for three hours before going inside his café. MacPhail said it’s believed the people who broke in earlier returned and drove up behind Herblin’s vehicle as a way to get him back outside.
“In the Crown’s theory, Mr. Holloway broke out the window of Mr. Herblin’s car to lure him into the parking lot. Then Mr. Dodgson ran at Mr. Herblin and stabbed him nine times and killed him,” MacPhail said in her opening remarks to the jury.
Herblin managed to walk a short distance to a nearby gas station.
“He made it to a nearby Shell station and asked the attendant … for help,” said MacPhail.
Gagandeep Kaur worked at the Shell and told the court she had been shovelling snow when a man approached her and said, “Please call 911. Someone stabbed me.”
She described seeing blood on Herblin’s hands. She said she took him inside and sat him down on a chair. He slumped, slid to the floor and became non-responsive as emergency crews arrived.
Herblin was a longtime executive sous chef at the Glencoe Golf and Country Club in Calgary. His new business, Croque Saveurs, a French deli and café, was weeks away from opening.
Const. Trevor Buckley was the first officer at the scene of the break-in. He testified that Herblin met him in the parking lot and said he thought he had seen someone enter his business.
Buckley said a window in the business had been smashed but there was nobody inside, only work tools and building supplies.
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