No blood or DNA to connect accused murderer to scene

KITCHENER — Police tested blood and DNA and found no crimescene evidence linking an accused murderer to the townhouse where a man was shot and killed, a jury heard Tuesday.

Noel Francis, 30, is on trial for murdering Devane Campbell, 20, on Nov. 30, 2012, in Kitchener. He’s pleaded not guilty.

The jury heard that investigators found Campbell’s blood at the crime scene. It was mixed with the blood of another person who is not Francis and is not identified.

Checking further for signs of a struggle, investigators found genetic markers under Campbell’s fingernail. The DNA does not match Francis or other blood at the crime scene. It is also unidentified.

“There is no evidence, forensic or otherwise, that links Noel Francis to the residence,” defence lawyer Chris Murphy told the jury.

Campbell was shot in the neck and back when three armed men wearing balaclavas barged into a Kitchener townhouse where he was visiting his girlfriend. He made his way outside and died nearby in the snow, clutching a knife and a stun gun.

The townhouse at 199 Elm Ridge Dr. was the residence of Renee Fries, a mother of two who sold crack cocaine in partnership with Campbell’s girlfriend and another woman. Fries was receiving welfare and was serving a conditional sentence at the time after getting involved in a bar fight. The three women shared a cellphone to manage their daily cocaine sales.

“We didn’t have a lot of money so we found a way to make money,” Fries testified.

Fries said a crack-addicted friend to whom she rented a basement room was about to drive her and her two-year-old son to Toronto to visit her convict boyfriend, who was himself under house arrest, when the intruders barged into her home after 11 p.m.

Not knowing who they were, she took her son to a couch and cradled him there while an intruder pointed a handgun at her face and barked at her to shut up. “I was very scared,” she said. “I was trying to protect my son.”

Fries testified she was on the couch when she heard a commotion and then shots from inside the townhouse.

“All of a sudden it was really quiet,” she said. She could not see what was happening. The intruder who held her at gunpoint left at some point.

She ran outside to huddle in a car with others who had been there when the intruders arrived.

“We’re basically freaking out,” she said. “There was a lot of shock.” The police arrived within minutes. The intruders were gone.

Citing inconsistencies in her previous statements, Murphy challenged Fries on parts of her testimony including her description of the intruder who held her at gunpoint, where she kept her cocaine, and why she thought the intruders were there.

The prosecution contends it was a home invasion robbery.

“It wasn’t like a normal robbery to me,” Fries testified under crossexamination. “Nothing was taken.”