Lawyers clash over dates in Durant trial
Defence questions whether jury can rely on witness testimony
Michael Durant’s first-degree murder trial resumed Monday with the testimony of a witness over whom the defence and Crown clashed last week.
The issue at hand is Gary Wilkins’ statement to the police on Dec. 17, 2005, how much he remembers about it, and whether the jury can rely on his testimony.
The Crown contends Durant, now 46, killed the victim in his Queen Street apartment in downtown Niagara Falls on Dec. 5, 2005, a date that witnesses saw the victim enter Durant’s apartment after ditching her friends.
In his opening statement to the jury, Durant’s lawyer Joe Wilkinson said if the Crown can’t show the victim died that day, they don’t have a case.
Wilkins was living in the same Silvertown section of Niagara Falls the 22-year-old victim, who was involved in the sex trade, frequented. He was doing some handyman work for a couple that lived on Ferguson Street in Silvertown when he saw the victim, who he knew from the neighbourhood.
At least, that’s what he told the Niagara Regional Police on Dec. 17, 2005, when he responded to
a missing person alert and a request for information from the public.
A voir dire, which began last week without the jury present, concluded Monday with Superior Court Justice Gerald Taylor allowing Wilkinson to play limited video excerpts from the statement, which a detective took at the old Niagara Falls police detachment on Morrison Street without an oath caution about telling the truth.
Wilkins testified that he couldn’t remember the exact date he gave the police during a statement that took less than 10 minutes more than 15 years ago. Concussions and injuries from two serious motorcycle accidents and a fall into the gorge have made an exacting recall even more complicated, Wilkins said.
“I’ve read the transcripts, and I saw the video last week,” Wilkins said.
“I didn’t remember it then, and I don’t remember it today. I went over it in my head all weekend. I apologize. I just don’t remember.”
Wilkinson ended his examination by showing the court the video where Wilkins told the police he saw the victim walk by a week earlier while installing a door at the home on Ferguson Street.
Crown prosecutor Andrew Sabbadini used his cross-examination to go over Wilkins’ injuries before asking if he was “feigning” memory loss.
“No, sir.”
“You can have me read the statement and watch the videos again, but I don’t remember,” Wilkins said. “I apologize again.”
Wilkins told Sabbadini the installation on the door took three or four days, and he likely thought he saw the victim on the second day.
“I’m just guesstimating here,” Wilkins said.
“Did you ever see (the victim) again?” Sabbadini asked.
“I don’t know for sure,” Wilkins said. “I don’t recall seeing her again.”
The victim’s body was found in some brush partially wrapped in sheets by a passerby walking his dog in the area Church’s Lane and Whirlpool Road on Jan. 24, 2006, more than a month after she disappeared from the downtown core.
A forensic pathologist testified the victim died of blunt force injuries to her head and face.
This is Durant’s second trial in the woman’s death. The first trial was held in 2012, but the Court of Appeal overturned the verdict in 2019 and ordered a new proceeding.
Monday, the trial also heard from the woman who owned the Ferguson Street house where Wilkins installed the door, Dorothy Tracey.
She testified about Wilkins installing the door and had trouble trying to pin down the exact dates.
“You guys have been telling me it was in late 2005,” Tracey said. “When I think back, I can’t recall it 100 per cent. I’m sorry.”