One accused charged in second homicide, murder trial jury hears
The jury in a Sarnia murder trial has heard a ton of evidence through the first three weeks about the fatal stabbing of a senior in late January 2021 and the two men accused of killing him.
But the 14-person group learned for the first time Thursday one of the accused faces a separate murder charge linked to a second senior's death.
Allen Schairer, 62, an avid photographer and retired city parks staffer who lived alone on Devine Street, was discovered stabbed to death in his bathtub on Jan. 26, 2021, after police found his car abandoned on Sarnia's outskirts, the trial has heard.
Noah Brown, 31, and Joshua Tomlinson, 38, have both pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and breaking and entering.
What the jury hadn't heard until late Thursday afternoon, was Tomlinson also is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Sue Lumsden, a senior stabbed by an intruder during an attempted home break-in three days before Schairer died. That came to light as Michael Moon, Brown's lawyer, cross-examined Sarnia police Det. Const. Tyler Callander.
Callander told court he was investigating both homicides at the same time in January 2021 and one person, Tomlinson, was arrested in the Lumsden case. Callander later said he believed that case was still before the courts.
Superior Court Justice Michael Mcarthur, who is overseeing the Schairer trial, cautioned the jury he'd have to give them more detailed instructions on the evidence they heard Thursday.
Earlier, the jury watched a taped interview between Callander and Brown at Sarnia police headquarters at about 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 28, 2021, about 5½ hours after his arrest in the Schairer probe. In it, Brown tells Callander where he hid the knife, but vehemently denies being in the Devine Street house
Superior Court Justice Michael Mcarthur, who is overseeing the Schairer trial, cautioned the jury he'd have to give them more detailed instructions on the evidence they heard Thursday.
during the stabbing.
Brown said he was in Tecumseh Park across the street about midnight or 1 a.m. on Jan. 26, 2021, when Tomlinson, with a cut on his left hand, came out of the home, handed him a kitchen knife and told him to get rid of it. He said he tossed the knife in a bush outside a long-term care home about 700 metres east.
Then he said he and Tomlinson loaded a TV, stereo, tools and a camera into a car in the garage, drove to a friend's house on Kathleen Avenue and stashed the goods. Brown threw a wallet with no cash into a nearby dumpster, then they drove to the reserve, he told the detective.
Schairer's car was found in a field near Aamjiwnaang First Nation, court has heard.
Callander asked Brown to get in a police car that night and show him where the knife was hidden and a few other areas to confirm his story. The video stopped and Callander told jurors that's what they did between about 9:30 and 11 p.m. that night.
Emotions ran higher during a second interview about 6:45 a.m. the next day, as Callander accused Brown of not being truthful. he detective repeatedly says he knows Brown was in the Devine Street house, not the park, which Brown denies.
“I was not in the (expletive) house when it happened,” Brown responds. “I didn't even know the guy was (expletive) dead until the next morning.”