An agitated Cody Alan Legebokoff contended he only found Loren Donn Leslie's body and did not kill her, the court heard Wednesday in an audio recording made shortly after his arrest for the teenager's murder.
Vanderhoof RCMP Const. Kanwalprit Sidhu made the recording as he told Legebokoff's Charter rights about 15 minutes after midnight on Nov. 28, 2010 while the two were sitting in Sidhu's police vehicle.
"I did not murder anyone," an adamant-sounding Legebokoff responded when Sidhu said he had arrested him for Leslie's murder.
When Sidhu went on to tell the accused he has the right to call a lawyer and can seek legal advice through a 24-hour service, in private and at no charge, Legebokoff repeatedly said he wanted to call his father.
"When do I get to call my dad?" Legebokoff said. "Because I didn't do this. I seen it, yes, but... I want to leave."
Slightly less than three hours earlier, another RCMP officer, Const. Aaron Kehler of the Fort St. James detachment, had pulled Legebokoff over after seeing his pickup truck turn onto Highway 27 from an unused logging road without slowing down and then speeding south.
What initially started as a largely routine pullover for speeding, turned into a drunk driving investigation when alcohol was found in Legebokoff's truck. It escalated to a suspicion of poaching when blood was found on a pipewrench, a multitool and on Legebokoff himself.
A conservation officer, Cam Hill, was called in to trace the route Legebokoff had taken through the freshly fallen snow. When Hill found Leslie's lifeless but still warm body in a shallow depression covered by some bush about 300 metres off the highway, Sidhu arrested Legebokoff for murder.
"I don't know why I'm fucking in here," Legebokoff continued as Sidhu repeated that he had the right to contact a lawyer.
"So do you want to call a lawyer or not?" asked Sidhu, who spoke in an excited voice of his own throughout the recording. Legebokoff replied that his father would know one and then said he wanted a cigarette out of his truck.
Sidhu went on to tell Legebokoff that anything he said can be used as evidence and asked if he understood.
"Yes," Legebokoff replied. "I want to talk to my dad because I did not do this. To drive down the road and find this... it's fucked up."
The recording was one of several pieces of evidence presented to the court Wednesday. The day began with Kehler continuing his testimony and admitting he let his emotions briefly get the better him shortly after Leslie's body was found.
He said Legebokoff turned to him and said he found the girl's dead body and shortly after said she committed suicide.
"And then he looked at me and said 'I didn't kill the girl,'' Kehler said. "And that's when I lost a little bit of my emotion and was a little bit unprofessional and said 'who the F did?'"
Legebokoff did not answer that question, the court heard.
Kehler later said it was the most serious case he had been involved in over the slightly more than a year he had been an RCMP officer. Sidhu had been in the force for four years by that time, all of them in Vanderhoof.
Other evidence presented Wednesday included photos of Legebokoff at the time of his arrest. Sporting the short, shaggy hair style he had at the time, he was wearing a black, long sleeve sweater with a Carhardt logo across the front, black and white plaid shorts on which blood from two of the victims was allegedly found, and black and grey "skater" shoes on which blood was also allegedly found.
Kehler noted the photos showed less of the signs of blood he first found on Legebokoff's legs when he first pulled him over, although the red smear originally noticed on his chin was still there in one photo. In the interim, Legebokoff had spent some time in the back of Kehler's RCMP truck while police discussed their next steps, the court had heard earlier.
Photos of Legebokoff's black GMC Sierra pickup, with 4x4 decals on the sides and near the end of the box, tinted rear window and the stainless steel tool box were also provided, as were shots of the grey vinyl interior that included photos of the small backpack with a stuffed monkey police found on the passenger seat. Leslie's mother, Donna, identified it as her daughter's during testimony on Tuesday.
Asked to present the items he found in Legebokoff's truck, Kehler at one point pulled a pipewrench with a red handle and stainless steel vice out of an evidence bag, which appeared to draw tears from Leslie's mother as she looked on from the gallery.
Kehler also presented the multitool he said he found at the scene and showed how he opened it up for a look.
"I observed vibrant, gelled blood in and amongst the tools and along the handle," Kehler said. "It wasn't consistent, it was, I wouldn't say smeared, but it was...thin, red and more vibrant in certain areas but it was all covered amongst the tools in there."
In addition to Leslie, 15, Legebokoff is accused of murdering Jill Stacey Stuchenko and Cynthia Frances Maas, both 35, and Natasha Lynn Montgomery, 23, as a result of the investigation that followed his arrest. The case is being argued before a 14-person jury with Crown prosecution relying heavily on forensic evidence allegedly found in Legebokoff's truck and Prince George home.
As occurred during the first two days of the trial, about 30 friends, family and members of the public were in the gallery to take in the trial, as were eight media people, from Prince George and the Lower Mainland. Sheriffs have been conducting security checks of anyone entering the courtroom.
The trial continues today at the Prince George courthouse, starting at 9:30 a.m.
