A key witness at a trial for three men accused of a drug-related murder recounted a long, wild and winding aftermath to a deadly shooting during testimony Wednesday.
Stacey Stevenson's day on the stand began with her account of how brothers Darren and Kurtis Sundman and Sebastian Martin disposed of the body of Jordan McLeod after he was shot to death on the night of Jan. 16, 2015.
McLeod had gotten into a dispute with the accused, apparently over money they owed him for the cocaine he had been selling and a budding relationship with Stevenson who was in the process of breaking up with Darren Sundman and moving out of his Vanderhoof home.
The matter came to a head as they were driving in Kurtis Sundman's pickup truck along Highway 16, the trial has heard. After passing through Prince George, McLeod had been told he had better jump out of the vehicle or "he knew what was going to happen," Stevenson had testified.
With the truck going well over the speed limit, McLeod stayed put but when they turned onto Upper Fraser Road, he jumped out. The truck was quickly pulled over and the three accused piled out. Stevenson testified she remained in the truck from where she heard three gunshots and then saw them retrieve McLeod's body and put it in the box of the pickup.
From there, they got back out onto Highway 16 and headed west. As they crossed the Yellowhead Bridge, Kurtis Sundman suggested they throw the body into the Fraser River but Darren Sundman said they had no time, Stevenson testified Wednesday.
Realizing they had left bullet shells at the scene, they turned around immediately after crossing the bridge to return to the scene and collect them, the court heard. But by the time they had reached Prince George Regional Correctional Centre, they turned around again for reasons not clear to Stevenson.
As they headed back across the bridge they saw unmarked police vehicles - SUVs with antennas - racing in the other direction. They made their way north onto Highway 97 and then onto Chief Lake Road where, worried the body would fall out of the box, Martin pulled himself halfway through the pickup's rear window to secure it with a rope while Darren Sundman held onto his legs. Once back inside the cab, Martin held onto the rope and they continued along Chief Lake Road for how long, Stevenson could not say.
"It seemed like forever," she told the court.
At some point, Kurtis Sundman said he knew of a spot and they ended up on a logging road. They eventually stopped, the accused got out, put McLeod's body on the plywood and dragged it into the woods.
Stevenson said she remained in the pickup and thought about driving away as the three dealt with the body. "But I did not know where to go because there was not very many houses around the area," she said.
Shortly after, the three piled back into the pickup and drove to a friend's home on Chief Lake Road. While there, Stevenson said they smoked some drugs - she methamphetamine and the others crack. They stayed for about an hour before deciding to drive back to Vanderhoof where the four lived, but stopped at a gas station and car wash at the corner of Chief Lake Road and Highway 97 to clean out the box and fill up with gas.
Stevenson said she remained in the cab "not doing anything." She thought of getting out and seeking some help, "but again, I was too scared to do anything."
They drove back to Vanderhoof where she and Darren Sundman were dropped off at their mobile home while Kurtis Sundman and Martin left, apparently to drop Martin off at his home. Kurtis Sundman returned about 45 minutes later and the brothers decided they had to get rid of the car McLeod had rented to drive from Prince George to Vanderhoof the previous day.
For reasons not apparent to Stevenson, they loaded a duffle bag containing her belongings into the truck, as well as Kurtis Sundman's backpack and his dog and drove along Blackwater Road to where McLeod's car was parked.
Kurtis Sundman remained in the pickup truck and, with the other two following in McLeod's car, they drove back to Prince George and then south to Williams Lake. When they reached a bridge crossing the Quesnel River, they stopped. Stevenson said she wiped the car down to get rid of any fingerprints while the other two used a screwdriver to try to peal off some decals and the vehicle identification number. The car was then doused in fuel and lit on fire and the pickup was used to push the vehicle down a gully.
They made their way back to Williams Lake where they stopped at the Walmart to buy some items and then onto Quesnel to buy more drugs because they had run out of methamphetamine.
Stevenson said they were going to get a hotel room but then Kurtis Sundman said he wanted to check something out at a home just outside the community. They pulled up to a home where an all-terrain vehicle was parked to one side. Kurtis Sundman hopped out and, just as he started up the ATV, the home's owner came out.
Kurtis Sundman ran back to the truck and got inside. Reaching the truck, the owner tried unsuccessfully to open the locked passenger-side door and the three took off. The owner didn't give up and chased the three in his own vehicle, before Darren Sundman pulled out a gun and fired off a shot through the open back window.
The owner stopped but as they headed back to Vanderhoof, RCMP came "kind of out of nowhere," Stevenson said, and gave chase.
They ended up stopping on a railway track and vacated the pickup truck. Kurtis Sundman was found hiding beneath a tree, the court has heard, while Darren Sundman and Stevenson made their way to the top of a hill and waited for the police to disperse.
When they did, Stevenson said they made their way back down the hill and across the highway to a home. Although it appeared empty, an elderly woman answered when they knocked on the door.
Stevenson said they told her they driven off into a ditch and needed her phone to call a cab. The woman commented that they seemed awfully wet for such a minor mishap and her offer to call a tow truck was declined.
However, she let them in, gave them a blanket and let them get some sleep while their clothes dried. The woman woke the two to tell them the cab arrived but when they stepped outside, RCMP converged on the two and they were arrested.
Initially, Stevenson did not tell police the whole story but eventually decided to cooperate. Sometime after she was released from custody, Stevenson tried to find McLeod's body and with the help of a friend retraced the route as well as she could remember. And a few days after that, she went through the same process, this time with the RCMP in tow.
About a month later, a man walking his dog found McLeod's body off the Kaykay Forest Service Road, past the end of Nukko Lake Road.
The trial continues Thursday at the courthouse.
