After hearing from 18 witnesses over six days, a jury in Saint John has finally heard from one of the accused in the death of Justin Breau.
On Monday, the Crown entered into evidence a series of taped conversations Donald Walker had with police.
Walker, 52, and Charles William Shatford, 49, are on trial for first-degree murder in Breau’s death on Aug. 17, 2022.
The first conversation was recorded while police executed a search warrant two days later, at Walker’s home, at 15 Celebration St.
Two other conversations were recorded by police on Sept. 15 and 16, 2022, when another police officer returned to Walker’s home to talk to him.
Walker makes it clear that he did not like Breau and Breau did not like him.
He told the officer that Breau killed his best friend, Mark Shatford.
‘I wanted him dead’
“I hate the guy,” Walker told the police officer during the Sept. 16 interview.
“And trust me. I wanted him dead.”
But Walker said “lots of people wanted him dead.”
He told another police officer that he may not have liked Breau, but he denied killing him.
Walker also said he took care of Breau’s girlfriend, Megan Ross, who was suffering from addiction issues, while Breau was in jail.
Ross and Breau lived in a top-floor apartment in this Charles Street building. (Graham Thompson/CBC)
He said he even saved her life when she overdosed in his apartment. Walker said the first thing Ross did after being revived was to ask for fentanyl.
Health Canada describes fentanyl as an opioid pain reliever potent enough that “a few grains can be enough to kill you.”
Ross, 27, was back on the stand on Monday morning.
She previously testified that she was with Breau in their Charles Street apartment when three masked men burst in and stabbed him to death.
But on Thursday and Friday, Ross had difficulty remembering much of what happened during and after the attack, so Crown prosecutor Joanne Park let her read transcripts of her interview with police and let her watch a video of it.
But nothing seemed to help jog Ross’s memory of the event or what she told police in the first two hours after the incident.
Girlfriend named Walker, officer’s notes say
On Monday, Park read an excerpt from notes made by Det. Const. Duane Squires shortly after he encountered Ross at the Saint John Regional Hospital on Aug. 17, 2022.
Squires said he went to the hospital to notify Breau’s mother, Susanne, about her son’s death. He said he met with Susanne Breau and Jerry Cromwell, who’s been described as a friend of Walker’s, in a small room in the emergency department.
When Ross arrived a few minutes later, Squires said Breau immediately asked her what had happened and who did it.
Ross responded, “Donnie Walker.”
As soon as she said that, Squires identified himself as a police officer. In his notes, he wrote that Ross began noticing other people in the room at that time.
Squires noted that Ross soon changed her story, saying she didn’t know who attacked Breau and that the intruders had been masked.
Breau was fatally stabbed in his Charles Street apartment on Aug. 17, 2022. (Justin Breau/Facebook)
Ross then pleaded with Cromwell not to say anything about her identifying Walker.
During the rest of Ross’s testimony and cross-examination on Monday, her responses were almost always “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember.”
The trial is now in its second week and 18 witnesses have testified.
Because of technical difficulties with playing video recordings in the courtroom, the jury was given Tuesday off. The trial will resume on Wednesday morning.