A jury began deliberating Tuesday afternoon on whether a Nakazdli man is guilty of a murder made notable by a gruesome step taken in its aftermath that could also prove to be the point where the matter began to unravel for the accused.
James David Junior Charlie has pleaded guilty to indignity to a dead body but is fighting a charge of first-degree murder in the January 2012 death of Fribjon Bjornson, a 28-year-old Vanderhoof man who had gone to a home on the reserve to buy drugs.
A missing person case turned into a homicide investigation when the victim's head was found in an abandoned home next to the Lower Road house where the murder occurred.
A so-called Mr. Big sting eventually followed with undercover officers posing as high-level criminals seek to gain the trust of the alleged perpetrators in an effort to tease out confessions.
In videos presented to the jury over the course of four weeks of testimony, the officers in the sting commented to their targets that had the head not been found, they could have gotten away with his killing.
As it stands, the jury has been put in a quandary.
In a closing statement, defence counsel Danny Markovitz urged members to consider the possibility Bjornson may already have been dead by the time Charlie handed a cord to another man, Wesley Duncan, who in turn used it to strangle the victim.
A pathologist, who had only Bjornson's head to work with, was unable to conclude on the exact cause of death, noting there was no sign of hemorraghing in the eyes, a telltale sign of strangulation, and that the snoring sounds Charlie said he heard may have been air escaping from a dead body.
Crown prosecution has also argued Charlie could be found guilty if it concludes he helped to unlawfully confine Bjornson after he was dragged into the basement and severely beaten during what appeared to have been an unprovoked attack.
Charlie told police he drove off in Bjornson's truck while the attack was occurring and Crown has argued the intent was both to get rid of evidence and to deprive the victim of his only means of escape.
Markovitz urged the jury to draw no conclusions from the move. The incident occurred in an atmosphere of "extreme intoxication" and that "sometimes things happen for no reason," he told the jury.
When he testified at the trial, Duncan, who is now serving a life sentence without eligibility for parole for 15 years, almost entirely contradicted a statement he gave to police following his arrest and claimed Charlie played no part in the death.
Immediately following Duncan's testimony, and during the process of delivering his charge on Tuesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ron Tindale said the jury can use Duncan's statement to police only to assessed his credibility on the stand and not for the truth of its contents.
Markovitz also urged the jury to ask why Crown did not call Jessie Bird, another man implicated in the murder and the primary target of the Mr. Big sting, and Theresa Charlie, Duncan's girlfriend and Charlie's sister, who was in the home at key points in time.
In statements he gave to undercover officers during the sting and to police following his arrest, Charlie said he left the house in Bjornson's still-running truck almost immediately after the attack began and drove it around until it started to run out of gas.
He said he parked it at a nearby apartment building then walked back to the home and found a badly beat up Bjornson on the basement floor. Charlie said Bjornson got up and took a run at him, so he punched Bjornson to the floor then kicked him in the side.
He said Duncan then suggested Bjornson was "half dead, might as well finish him off." Charlie said he retrieved a length of cable or cord from the basement ceiling and handed it to Duncan and then left without looking back, although an interviewing officer noted Charlie made a tightening motion with his hands as he told the story, indicating he actually did watch.
Charlie said he went upstairs and grabbed a blanket to put over the entrance to the basement and left the house again.
Charlie denied chopping Bjornson's head prior to taking the body by snowmobile up the Necoslie River where it was dumped into a log jam but admitted in an agreed statement of facts he carried out the act. Why it was done was never stated outright to police.
Besides the head, only a few bits of clothing and two leg bones determined to be Bjornson's were ever recovered.
Tindale said jury members also have the options of finding Charlie guilty of second degree murder and manslaughter or not guilty of any of the charges and repeatedly reminded them the Crown must prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
