Outside of the Court of King’s Bench in downtown Edmonton, Marless Johnson stood Thursday with the people who have supported her through the trial of the man accused of killing her daughter.
Kenneth Courtorielle has pleaded guilty to offering indignity to a body, and not guilty to manslaughter in the death of Billie Johnson, a mother of two.
Johnson disappeared on Dec. 24, 2020. Portions of her remains were found four months later in a field north of Edmonton near Bon Accord.
Johnson went to watch the trial nearly everyday. She said it was hard to sit in the same room as Courtorielle, and at times had strong emotional outbursts at what was said during the trial.
Justice Steve Hillier made the decision Johnson could no longer be in the courtroom, but set up another private room where she could watch from a Webex livestream.
“He basically made himself sound like a victim, he tried to put my baby on trial,” Johnson said.
“It wasn’t my baby’s (trial), it was his.”
Defence lawyer Kent Teskey said there was not enough evidence to prove manslaughter beyond reasonable doubt.
In his testimony, Courtorielle said he and Johnson smoked a portion of some crack cocaine in the living room of his apartment.
He said went into the bedroom with the rest of the drug, and after a while he went into the room and saw her with her head down with her chin to her chest.
Courterielle said she had blood coming out of her nose and mouth.
The defence told the court the blood splatter found on the pillow in the master bedroom could have been from an impact, or a cough.
Courtorielle testified he tried to shake her awake and slapped her, but Johnson didn’t stir. Courtorielle said he picked Johnson up from the bed and put her on the floor with plans to do CPR, but he didn’t.
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In his closing arguments, Teskey stressed Courtorielle was in a panic and his actions in light of that were reasonable.
Courtorielle said he picked Johnson up from the floor, and put her in his truck with plans to take her to the hospital — but he didn’t.
Instead, he drove for 45 minutes north out of Edmonton and dumped her body in a treed area.
Courtorielle went home and cleaned the blood in his apartment. Teskey argued someone who is involved in an overdose death would clean up like this.
The defence said simply because he acted like a criminal in terms of disposal of the body, the court need to be careful in thinking what someone might do when panicked.
Courtorielle admitted on the stand in his interviews with police weeks after Johnson’s death, he lied multiple times to manipulate police.
Teskey argued the accused was scared because he was on parole, and worried how the death could affect him.
For example, Courtorielle thought he was going to be blamed because he provided Johnson with drugs.
Hillier asked Teskey, “How would I distinguish that from all the other lies?”
Teskey admitted Courtorielle lied to police — but lying to hide that he hid a body doesn’t mean he killed her too.
Portions of Johnson’s remains were found in a treed area, months after she died. Teskey argued a nasal fracture found in the autopsy was likely from animal scavenging.
Crown prosecutor Jim Stewart painted a different picture in his closing arguments.
Stewart argued Johnson was killed from a punch to the face which caused the nasal fracture — adding that would also explain blood splattered in the apartment.
Stewart said the accused is not a credible person.
Stewart said the Courtorielle admitted under oath that he applied extremely manipulative techniques with police in order to deceive them — for example, crying on purpose.
Courtorielle also talked out loud during the breaks in his police interview, and pretended to talk to Johnson — wondering where she might be — while all along knowing Johnson was dead and laying in a bush where he left her.
Stewart said Courtorielle’s version of what happened to Johnson in the apartment does not account for blood splatters. Luminel testing found blood all over the apartment.
The Crown also said it didn’t make sense that Courtorielle remember details about what kind of cleaning products he used — Pine-Sol and Lysol — and how he used a towel and dish cloth for some parts, but couldn’t other recall events.
Court heard from witnesses that Courtorielle complained about a sore hand the early hours of Dec. 25, 2020, but not earlier when the same witnesses were with him while skating out at Enoch on Christmas Eve.
Courtorielle claimed on the stand he hurt his hand early Christmas Eve by falling out of his truck.
Stewart said it was also an illogical act when Courtorielle said he picked Johnson up from the bed and put her on the floor, to do CPR, adding moving her goes against the training he had for giving CPR.
Stewart said it was an incredibly callous act to take a human being people love and care about all the way out of town and into the bush.
Stewart asked, what purpose does it serve to hide a body that deep into the wood, where nobody is going to find her to assess how she died?
Stewart argued people in a panic do the easy and stupid thing, but Courtorielle just drove and drove until he found that row trees.
Justice Hillier has yet to set a date when he will be delivering his decision on the manslaughter charge.
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