Accused asked why he wasn’t shot
Court hears recording of Joel Lawrence Clow arrest; at one point the Pleasant Grove man asks, ‘This is real, isn’t it?’
A Pleasant Grove man on trial for first-degree murder asked the RCMP officers arresting him why they didn’t shoot him, a P.E.I. Supreme Court judge heard Tuesday.
Joel Lawrence Clow appeared before Justice Nancy Key in Charlottetown where a recording taken during his arrest at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown on July 25, 2015, was played in court.
Most of Clow’s responses to the RCMP were inaudible mutterings or groans, but on two occasions he asked the police why they didn’t shoot him.
Clow pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Traci Lynch after her body was found in a wheelbarrow on his property on July 24, 2015.
A statement of admissions presented in court said Clow acknowledged his physical acts must be responsible for Lynch’s unlawful death.
On Tuesday, RCMP Const. Robert Honkoop testified he travelled to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital with Clow after the police found him inside his home.
Video was shown in court of Clow rolling around on the ground outside his home, whipping his head back and forth as he appeared to convulse.
Honkoop can be seen in the video trying to reassure Clow he would be OK and that help was on its way. The officer also helped two paramedics lift Clow onto a stretcher.
Honkoop said he stayed with the accused for several hours at the hospital where a nurse asked to have Clow handcuffed to his stretcher for safety.
During his testimony, Honkoop said he went to the morgue where he identified the body as Lynch.
Sgt. Hank Pollard, who was in charge of the RCMP’s major crime unit in 2015, testified he felt once Honkoop had identified Lynch there were reasonable grounds to arrest Clow.
Pollard was the officer who read Clow his charter rights and informed him he was under arrest for the alleged murder.
Although most of Clow’s responses to the RCMP during his arrest weren’t clear, there were a few exchanges with the officers.
“This is real isn’t it?” Clow asked at one point.
The court also heard testimony from one of the paramedics who treated Clow and said his pupils were constricted to two millimetres.
That paramedic said he determined Clow was possibly intoxicated or overdosed on an unknown substance.
At one point, he asked Clow if he took any drugs, the paramedic testified.
He said “everything” was Clow’s response.
The court also heard brief testimony from two people who saw Clow the day before Lynch’s death.
One of them said Clow seemed normal, while the other testified he seemed anxious.
Another witness testified she exchanged text messages with Lynch on July 23, 2015, and had a short phone conversation with her.
Lynch’s son was staying with the woman that night.
“She seemed normal,” the woman said.
The court heard the woman also got a call at 3:39 a.m. while she was sleeping, but she didn’t notice it until about a week later and wasn’t aware at that time it was from Lynch’s phone.