A Prince George area man testified Tuesday that within about two weeks of buying sexual services from one of Cody Alan Legebokoff's alleged victims, he became her caregiver as she struggled to conquer her drug addiction.
A sometimes tearful and sobbing Jim Giller told the court that when he first set eyes on Jill Stacey Stuchenko as she stood alongside a stretch of road in the Queensway-Juniper area, he turned his sport utility vehicle around and introduced himself.
Giller said he paid for sex from Stuchenko on that first occasion but when he got in touch with her a second time, it was for a different reason.
"I wanted to get her off the streets," Giller said.
Giller lived in a cabin near a lake about a 40 minute drive out of town. Whenever Stuchenko needed to get out of the city, she would call Giller and he would take her back to his home.
"She would pass out, and she'd be out for 18 to 20 hours," Giller said, his voice quivering. "I would go to work and come back and find her head exactly on the same pillow as she had been left there.
"She would wake up after that time and [would be] very hungry so we would cook something together and go down to the lake for a swim after that and I would leave her alone in the sun room with her books and the books she was reading were self-help books."
But after three or four days, she would get the "itch," make her way back into Prince George "and get back into that cycle again." Giller said he would sometimes give her a ride or she'd get someone else to pick her up.
Giller said Stuchenko still kept in touch with him when she was in the city, often calling just before he was going to work at 6 p.m. or just before he was about to get off work at 3 a.m. and he would keep an eye on her.
"If it was convenient, then I would come over and pick her up," Giller said.
On one occasion, he paid off a $500 drug debt Stuchenko owed to a man named "Buddy," going with her to a house in the VLA. Giller called the experience "pretty scary" and agreed with defence lawyer Jim Heller that he took the step because he was worried for Stuchenko's safety.
He told the man he was not allowed to sell any more drugs to her, the court heard, but admitted he had no way of making sure that never happened again.
Giller said he also made it clear to Stuchenko it would be the last time he would bail her out of such a situation but he continued to help her with smaller expenses such as interest payments on an item she had pawned or the cost of a phone card.
Giller also signed an application to the provincial government for rental assistance of up to $480 per month as part of a plan to have her rent a portion of the cabin from him. Stuchenko paid him $80 in rent but only once and he never learned if the application was approved.
Giller admitted he was "smitten" with Stuchenko and "wanted a better life for her," but also realized the chances of something beyond a friendship were complicated by the fact she had a boyfriend with whom she had two of her six children, although it was an abusive relationship.
Giller said he met the man, Leonard Kinney, shortly after he finished a jail sentence for assaulting her but was aware things were on the mend between them. When Stuchenko told him they planned to get back together, Giller was not happy but accepted the situation and intended to still be there as a friend, the court heard.
Giller said he last saw Stuchenko sometime around Thanksgiving in October 2009. Stuchenko called Giller and suggested they meet somewhere. Although she gave no reason, "she always had an agenda."
They met at Victoria Towers on 20th Avenue where Giller saw her sitting on a cement planter box. Stuchenko looked like she was "kind of on the downswing of needing a break," Giller said, noting she looked haggard and her feet and jeans looked dirty.
She hopped into his vehicle and they drove over to the 7-11 on 20th where Giller invited her to turkey dinner at his sister's home but she declined. "She wasn't ready to go out for dinner, you know what I mean," Giller said. "She had too much hustle on the go."
Giller dropped her off near 20th and Queensway where they hugged and he told her to take care and phone him. "She lit a cigarette, threw her purse over her shoulder and I went to dinner," Giller said.
Although she would often go two or three days without calling him back, the court was told Giller tried calling her again that night because he was concerned for her.
Giller had trouble remembering exactly when that last meeting occurred but suspected it was a Sunday afternoon during the Thanksgiving weekend.
Stuchenko's body was found Oct. 20, 2009 partially buried in a gravel pit off Otway Road near Foothills Boulevard. She was 35 years old.
Legebokoff also faces charges first-degree murder in the deaths of Loren Donn Leslie, 15, Cynthia Frances Maas, 35, and Natasha Lynn Montgomery, 23.
The trial continues today at the Prince George courthouse, starting at 9:30 a.m.
