Interview-room tantrum a ploy, expert interrogator testifies at murder trial

A tirade by a murder suspect — who threw items around an interview room while an investigator calmly looked on — was likely a ploy to avoid giving a statement, a senior officer testified Thursday.

RCMP Insp. Mike McCauley testified Saad Osman’s outburst while talking to Staff Sgt. John Wilson showed he was trying not to talk to police.

“By wrecking the room, I feel that was a strategy on his part to get out of the interview room,” McCauley told Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Karen Horner. “I felt he was acting that way to try to end the interview.”

About halfway through a morethan-five-hour interview of Osman by Wilson and McCauley acting alternately, the accused murderer lost his cool.

He slammed a soft drink cup on the table before throwing it on the floor, grabbed other items and threw them around, swiped more objects off the table and attempted to damage or disable recording equipment.

Throughout the tirade, Wilson sat leaning back in his chair, his legs remaining crossed as Osman stood menacingly over him.

Later in the interview, McCauley told Osman: “I’ve never seen anyone freak out like that before.”

The accused, who is representing himself, asked the veteran Mountie if he was telling the truth.

“I’ve never seen that specific kind of freak-out,” McCauley told Horner. “I was telling the truth, yes.”

Osman and brothers Theo and Julius Wheyee are charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of a city man in September 2015.

The body of Mohammed Saqib was found Sept. 18, 2015, in a charred car 13 kilometres northwest of Airdrie.

McCauley and Wilson interviewed Osman at the Airdrie RCMP detachment on Nov. 24, 2015.

In the interview, which Osman wants Horner to rule inadmissible, he admitted to being present at a home with the Wheyees and Saqib.

The accused also demonstrated other out-of-the-ordinary behaviour in the interview room.

At one point, after he’d smoked two cigarettes McCauley had provided, Osman attempted to smoke pieces of a half cast he wore on his right forearm, and used the lighter the officer provided to burn the table, while he inhaled the smoke.

By wrecking the room, I feel that was a strategy on his part to get out of the interview room. I felt he was acting that way to try to end the interview.

Later on, with McCauley also out of the room, Osman walked to a garbage can and retrieved the soft drink cup from earlier.

“He’s picked up a McDonald’s cup out of the garbage,” McCauley told Crown prosecutor Doug Taylor, when asked to describe what was happening in the video being shown in court.

“Although he’s off camera (moments later), I assume he’s put it on the ground and you can hear the audible sound of him urinating.”

At the conclusion of the interview, McCauley mentioned the unconventional bathroom break.

“Thanks for peeing in a cup,” he told Osman.

“Would you like me to pour it out?” the accused asked.

“No, we’ll get at it. That’s OK.”