Friends detail last hours of woman’s life

Friends of Montreal-born yoga instructor Kristin Johnston say she was happy and “glowing” in the hours before she was allegedly killed by her boyfriend inside her home on Halifax’s outskirts.

Lisa Abramowicz, a childhood friend of Johnston, told Nicholas Butcher’s second-degree murder trial today that she met up with Johnston at Halifax’s Lion and Bright bar on the evening of March 25, 2016, hours before she was found dead.

Abramowicz says Johnston talked about wanting to end her relationship with Butcher, and about having one last summer in Halifax before moving to Tofino, B.C., to be closer to her sister.

She says the pair left the bar and went to her place nearby before going to another friend’s home, where the three listened to records and talked about life over a drink.

Abramowicz says Johnston seemed “very happy, very bubbly.”

The Crown alleges Butcher, a 35-year-old graduate of Dalhousie University’s law school, killed Johnston and tried to kill himself inside her home in Purcells Cove on March 26, 2016.

In her opening statement Wednesday, prosecutor Tanya Carter said the medical examiner will testify that Johnston had 10 wounds on her neck, and that her death was caused by sharp force.

Butcher has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Anna Gilkerson, who owns a clothing store in Halifax, told the 14-member Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury that Johnston was a patron of her store, and that they had mutual friends. Johnston, 32, had also worked at few shifts at her shop, she said.

“She was a really nice person. The type of person you’d want to be friends with,” said Gilkerson.

Gilkerson said she had briefly popped into Lion and Bright on the evening of March 25, 2016, to see Johnston, who had just returned from Costa Rica, and to discuss some upcoming shifts she would be working at the store.

“She was glowing and happy and having a really good time,” she said, adding that Johnston had told her she didn’t want to go home that night because she didn’t want to see her boyfriend.