Garnier faces new charges
Halifax man accused of killing Catherine Campbell back behind bars
Police say they did their due diligence in trying to locate a Halifax man accused of killing an off-duty police officer before arresting him for an alleged violation of his bail conditions.
But the father of Christopher Calvin Garnier claimed to hold “ample evidence” to the contrary.
In an interview on Tuesday, Vince Garnier claimed his son was with his mother at her home in Cape Breton on Feb. 17 and 18, the same dates police are saying they attempted to contact him.
Police have charged Garnier with three counts of violating his recognizance, after they reportedly tried to contact him over the holiday weekend at the two places he was allowed to reside in – one in Bedford and the other in Millville outside of Sydney.
“My son abided by his conditions entirely and we have ample evidence of that and we’re confident in our lawyers to produce that evidence in court,” Garnier told Metro.
The bail conditions included a 24-hour house arrest with the accused’s mother, father, and stepmother acting as his sureties.
“I do know in this investigation that we did our due diligence in trying to locate Mr. Garnier,” Const. Dianne Penfound,
spokeswoman for the Halifax Regional Police, said in an interview on Tuesday.
“Cape Breton Regional Police tried to locate him as well before charges were laid.”
The court will see there was an “error in judgment” and a “lack of communication” by police when the evidence is presented at another bail hearing Wednesday, according to Garnier’s father.
“My son had 91 police checks since December 21,” he said of the supervision Garnier has been under while awaiting trial.
Garnier was arrested Sunday
and has been at the Central Nova Correctional Facility in Burnside since then. He made a brief appearance in court Tuesday and will be back before a judge Wednesday to see if he will be allowed out again while awaiting trial later this year.
Christopher Garnier is facing a charge of second-degree murder and interfering with a dead body in the death of Truro police officer Catherine Campbell.
Campbell’s body was found in a green bin underneath an overpass in September 2015.
In December, Garnier was granted bail in Nova Scotia Supreme
Court in Halifax.
Campbell had served as a Truro police constable for six years before she died.
Campbell also served as a volunteer firefighter for 10 years in her hometown of Stellarton.
Her family has said she held a variety of jobs in the community before deciding to train as a police officer, finding a job in Truro as soon as she graduated.
During her funeral in Stellarton, more than one hundred police officers and firefighters lined the main street of her hometown as her coffin was carried to the Presbyterian church.