Exhibits labelled at hit-and-run trial

Donald Brodie is facing 5 charges in connection with the death of newspaper carrier Steve Kania in 2013

A good part of Friday’s court time in the hit-and-run trial of Donald Brodie was spent on the tedious and time-consuming task of numbering, naming and labelling 40 exhibits of evidence.

The lawyer for the Crown read out the number and contents while the defence lawyer either agreed or disagreed with the assessment as Judge Martha Devlin looked on.

In the prisoner’s box, Brodie seemed uninterested in the proceedings, doing some stretches and drinking from a plastic cup of water.

He was dressed in a jail-issued red T-shirt, which didn’t conceal his two full sleeves of tattoos and inked neck, head and face.

Brodie is charged with five counts in conjunction with the death of Capital News newspaper carrier Steve Kania, including flight causing bodily harm or death, criminal negligence causing bodily harm and three counts of wilfully resisting or obstruction a peace officer.

On Dec. 6. 2013 Brodie is accused of trying to evade police in a late-night car chase through Rutland that ended when Kania was hit at the corner of Dundee and Dundas roads.

Kania was badly injured and brain damaged.

Brodie tried to deflect blame and then confessed.

But that confession has been ruled inadmissible because police violated Brodie’s rights by not telling him he could speak to a lawyer before his interview at the Kelowna RCMP detachment.

However, a later correspondence sent by Brodie from his cellphone to police while in jail in Kamloops will be allowed into evidence.

The trial continues.