In the weeks and months after Justin Breau was fatally stabbed in his Charles Street apartment, police zeroed in on Charles Shatford, whose brother Mark had been shot to death by Breau three years earlier.
The week after Breau’s death, Saint John police executed a search warrant at Shatford’s Waterloo Street apartment, according to evidence entered at the trial on Wednesday.
He was also interviewed more formally at his apartment on Sept. 15, 2022.
In those interviews, which were played for the jury on Wednesday, Shatford denies ever meeting Breau. He said he had only seen him a couple of times in court when Breau was on trial. And even then, said Shatford, Breau had been wearing a mask.
Shatford said he ran into Breau at Tim Hortons on Waterloo Street a few hours before Breau’s death. He said the two exchanged words. He said Breau said, “How you doin’, bro?”
Shatford said he didn’t even realized it was Breau until someone told him moments later.
Charles Shatford is seen standing on the sidewalk, dressed in black, outside the home of Donald Walker at 3:45 p.m. on Aug. 17, 2022, in this image taken from security video. (Court of King’s Bench/CBC)
But when police spoke to Shatford five days later, he said he ran into Breau on Waterloo Street two days before his death.
Shatford said he punched him in the face and put him in a choke hold until Breau lost consciousness.
“I choked him and he went to sleep. I walked away and went home,” he explained to the officer.
But when he was arrested in January 2023, Shatford was confronted by police about several inconsistencies in his story, including the fight on the street.
Det. Const. Tony Gilbert told Shatford that police had tracked Breau to the north end at the time Shatford said he knocked him out on Waterloo Street.
Gilbert confronted Shatford about other inconsistencies in his previous statements.
Justin Breau was fatally stabbed in his Charles Street apartment on Aug. 17, 2022. (Justin Breau/Facebook)
Shatford told police that after getting his methadone and coffee from the Tim Hortons down the street, he returned to his residence and then didn’t leave again until he went out for supper at about 6 p.m.
But when confronted with video surveillance that showed him leaving his apartment at about 3 p.m., he said he went to the north end, spent $50 on crack and went home to get high.
He declined to name the location or the drug dealer.
Shatford said two strangers drove him home and he didn’t leave again until supper.
One by one, Gilbert took Shatford through a series of images taken from security cameras between his Waterloo Street apartment and Walker’s residence on Celebration Street.
Officer challenges Shatford on inconsistencies
Where Shatford had said he hadn’t seen Walker in three months, the pictures entered as exhibits in the trial show him and Walker on the street and getting into the same vehicle not long before Breau was attacked.
As Shatford repeatedly insisted Walker did not get into the car, the officer tells him the security tapes prove he did.
Shatford said the vehicle immediately dropped him off at his residence by driving by St. Joseph’s Hospital, but Gilbert reveals more still images that show the car going in a different direction.
Gilbert said the video shows that the car parks, and three of the four occupants get out.
Donald Walker is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of Justin Breau. (Court of King’s Bench/CBC)
“Who’s the three people?” Shatford asks the officer. “It ain’t f——g me.”
Soon after, the officer exits the interview room and leaves Shatford alone with the security images.
Shatford can be seen picking up the printouts and looking closely through them and muttering to himself.
The Crown is expected to resume playing the videotaped interview with Shatford when the trial resumes Thursday morning.