Crown attorneys have closed their case against a man accused of killing his common-law partner.
The Crown called its final three witnesses at the Thunder Bay Superior Court Tuesday. The Crown had started its case against accused Michael Kelly nearly three weeks ago. Kelly faces a first-degree murder charge in connection to the death of his common-law partner Judie Thibault.
One of the witnesses called Tuesday was OPP Det. Sgt. Donald Millson.
Donald played a character named Donnie, who was described to the court as a dishonest terminally ill patient who was trying to get money for his niece to go to college.
As Donnie, Sgt. Millson told Kelly that he would confess to Thibault’s murder so that Kelly could collect an insurance policy that was allegedly being withheld because Kelly was still a person of interest in Thibault’s death.
Both Donnie and Kelly would then receive a cut of that inheritance, however no such withheld inheritance money existed.
Throughout the investigation, Millson pressed Kelly about Thibault’s disappearance. He said his mission was to find out the truth about what happened to the missing woman.
The court watched a video this week that showed Kelly and Millson in a Toronto hotel room on Sept. 26, 2009.
At one point, the Crown and defense lawyers argued the significance of one portion of the taped conversation.
While talking to Millson, Kelly raised his right hand, which skewed the view of the camera slightly so only a portion of his left hand could be shown.
Millson said Kelly was pointing at his chest, which was indicting that he was responsible for the murder.
“I’m not judging you man,” the court heard Millson say to Kelly on the tape.
Millson told the court he recorded every conversation he had with Kelly and the court heard a number of phone calls he had with Kelly.
They both made some small talk but they always went back to what details Millson needed to convince police he killed Thibault.
Millson told Kelly that he was going to go to the police to confess, but asked Kelly for more details on the weapon used.
“It was a .22 Winchester lever action,” Kelly said on the phone.
The court heard that Millson tried to find the place where Kelly said he dumped the body but was unable to from the information Millson got from Kelly.
He called him again and the two discussed Kelly possibly coming to Thunder Bay so he could give Millson more details.
“You got to think, I want to go in,” Millson said. “This Wolf River Road isn’t very long. I wish you could come up here so we can talk about this because I got only one shot at this.”
Kelly told Millson to forget about the road and tried to put him at ease.
“Look if they ask any questions that you’re worried about just say you were drunk,” Kelly said.
Millson told the court that Kelly did deny killing Thibault the first couple of times he asked.
Kelly’s lawyer Gil Labine said Kelly always gave details in the third person and that Millson relied on that information only. Labine went on to say that the information provided to Millson could not have been correct because the directions Kelly gave him did not lead him to where police eventually found the body.
“You asked him again after these conversations about the location,” Labine said. “You found the information (Kelly) gave you was not correct. When you drove up (Wolf Lake Road) from your information he gave you, it wasn’t correct.”
Labine said Millson told Kelly that unless he told him he did the crime then the scheme wouldn’t work.
Millson said he couldn’t remember saying anything along the lines of “foolproof” because he would have been more comfortable with a phrase like “roll of the dice” or “taking a shot.”
Justice John Wright dismissed the jury for the day with the expectations to resume the trial Wednesday.
Wright said he didn’t expect the trial to last much longer and could be concluded by Thursday.
