Former girlfriend testifies at trial of med student charged with murder

The former girlfriend of a Halifax university student has told his murder trial that she smelled cleaning products when she returned to his apartment the night Taylor Samson was last seen alive.

William Sandeson is charged with the first-degree murder of the 22-year-old Dalhousie University student, whose body has never been found.

Court has heard that Samson was last seen alive on video, walking into Sandeson’s apartment shortly before 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 15, 2015.

Defence witness Sonja Gashus told the jury Tuesday she went out for dinner with Sandeson earlier that evening, and was told by him she would need to leave his apartment for a period of time later that night — something she described as unusual.

The recent Dalhousie graduate later testified in Nova Scotia Supreme Court that she believed Sandeson was conducting a drug deal.

Gashus said she did not approve of Sandeson’s involvement in selling drugs, especially after he was accepted into medical school earlier that year.

“I believed that it was him making a deal and he said that he was going to get out of the whole thing,” the 23-year-old woman told the jury of the night of Aug. 15, 2015.

Gashus said she went to a friend’s home nearby and received a text message from Sandeson at around 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 16, 2015, telling her she could return to his apartment.

She said she smelled cleaning products when she arrived there, but nothing else about his apartment was out of the ordinary.

Gashus went to bed — although she did not recall what time — and Sandeson drove her to work at a coffee shop hours later at 5:45 a.m.

She also described Sandeson’s arrest, which happened outside her grandmother’s house days later.

Gashus said both her and Sandeson were cuffed after walking outside the home.

Her handcuffs were later removed and she was told she wasn’t being arrested, but had to go to the police station to answer questions.

She testified this left her “confused.”

“They definitely didn’t tell me that I had a choice,” she said, referring to being taken to the police station for questioning.

At the station, the questioning lasted roughly 30 minutes and then she was free to go, she said.

The trial has heard Samson’s DNA was found on items recovered from Sandeson’s apartment on Henry Street and his family’s farm in Truro, N.S.

It has also heard the medical student was deep in debt and under pressure from his parents about his spending in the weeks before he allegedly murdered Samson.

The jury has heard Samson was to sell Sandeson 20 pounds of marijuana for $40,000 the night of Aug. 15, 2015.