Fatal stab wounds detailed in trial
A Hamilton jury was shown photographs and told details of each of the 11 stab wounds that Tania Cowell’s boyfriend inflicted while killing her in their Stoney Creek apartment in 2013.
Forensic pathologist Elena Bulakhtina testified Friday that of the 11, three of them were severe enough on their own to have caused Cowell’s death.
Haiden Suarez Noa, 41, has already admitted to killing Cowell, 36 — his girlfriend and mother of his son — on March 9, 2013.
Suarez Noa has pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He is charged, however, with second-degree murder, which carries a stiffer penalty upon conviction.
Crown prosecutor Janet Booy told the jury at the start of his trial this week that “the issue is his intent at the time he killed her.”
Each time Bulakhtina spoke of the three deadly wounds in her testimony Friday, she said pointedly “this wound was lethal.” She said each of those blows penetrated major arteries.
One of the wounds was on Cowell’s back, but Bulakhtina said there was no way to know which injury was inflicted first.
Hamilton police cellphone analyst David McKenzie presented text messages between Cowell and Suarez Noa before the stabbings while Suarez Noa was in Guelph where he worked.
The texts, read out in court, show the couple arguing bitterly that Suarez Noa was not helping clean their apartment. It was clear this had been an ongoing issue.
Several of Cowell’s texts referenced having given him already two chances to shape up and she was not giving him a third.
At one point, she texted they were separating and told him to move out. Suarez Noa continued to promise to change and said he wanted to stay with her and their infant son.
Cowell later relented and texted him at 6 p.m. the night she died, writing “baby wants daddy home” and “I don’t know why I am giving you another chance.”
McKenzie testified there is nothing more on Suarez Noa’s cell after that, until a photo is taken with it at 11 p.m. of Cowell’s dead and bloodied body on the living room floor.
Court has heard that after stabbing Cowell, Suarez Noa packed up the baby and left, locking the apartment door behind him and driving to Guelph where they stayed overnight in a hotel.
Cellphone records show that overnight, a credit card was activated, a call was made to Suarez Noa’s mother in Cuba, and money was transferred between bank accounts.
The next morning, Suarez Noa walked into the Guelph police station and confessed to killing his girlfriend.
Yoel Morales, his friend and co-worker, testified earlier the two shared an apartment in Guelph until Suarez Noa, some time after meeting Cowell online, moved in with her in Stoney Creek.
“It was a normal relationship,” Morales told the trial. “Ups and downs like every relationship ... I don’t remember them arguing.”
He said Suarez Noa was very happy when the couple had a baby and planned to buy a house together.
When Morales visited Suarez Noa later in jail shortly after his arrest, he testified his friend told him he had transferred $11,500 to him.
Morales was told to send $4,000 to Suarez Noa’s mother in Cuba, where she provided for a son he had in another relationship there before immigrating to Canada in 2009.
Morales said he was asked to transfer the rest of the money to Suarez Noa’s aunt in Florida.
Morales also testified that while visiting Suarez Noa in jail, “he told me, ‘I made a mistake. I have to pay for it.’”
The trial continues on Tuesday.