THUNDER BAY - More details on the alleged victim’s state during October and November 2016, as well as the discovery of a will came to light on Day 7 of the trial against former Thunder Bay mayor Keith Hobbs, his wife Marisa, and local resident Mary Voss.
The Crown called Alisa Makela to testify on Tuesday afternoon. Makela described herself as a housekeeper and an acquaintance of the alleged victim.
During her testimony, Makela provided more details of the victim’s deteriorating mental state as a result of heavy drinking at the time.
She described the victim’s residence as being in disarray and filthy. Makela also said the victim seemed unable to care for himself at times and refusing to clean himself.
There was also an instance when the victim requested a ride in the early morning hours of Oct. 21 and being incoherent.
“He was just talking,” she said. “I don’t recall any of the conversation because it was just bouncing all over the place and making no sense.”
Crown attorney, Peter Keen, asked Makela about the discovery of a will in the victim’s residence.
She said she found it on a shelf in the dining room while cleaning.
“After I finished the kitchen, I went into the dining room,” Makela testified. “There is a wall unit. There was a piece of paper there.”
“Was it in plain view?” Keen asked.
“Yeah, it was just sitting there.”
After finding the will, Makela said she showed it to the alleged victim, who was intoxicated at the time.
“He started pacing around back and forth on the landing and that they were trying to kill him, that this is a forgery, and they were only after his money,” she said.
The will in question was brought up during earlier testimony, including that by Craig Loverin, who said the victim showed him the will and said it was a forgery and asked him to sign a revocation for it.
During cross-examination by Brian Greenspan, who is representing Keith and Marisa Hobbs, Makela was asked about an incident during which she was cleaning the victim’s residence and Heli Kijanen arrived, enquiring about her relationship with the victim.
“It seems Heli was in rather an outraged mood? Is that fair?” Greenspan asked.
“Yes,” Makela replied.
“She was screaming and ranting?”
“That’s correct.”
The court was also shown a video that the Crown stated was from a Blackberry owned by Keith Hobbs.
In the video the victim can be heard speaking with Makela about being physically assaulted by Voss and being forced to sign a fake will, saying it was an attempt by Voss to extort him.
OPP intelligence analyst testifes
Earlier in the day, Keen called Philip Wilkinson, an intelligence analyst with the Ontario Provincial Police to testify regarding text messages and phone calls obtained from seized cell phones of the three accused.
There was some confusion regarding the documents prepared by the Crown relating to text messages. Justice Fletcher Dawson stopped Keen at one point to ask for clarification.
Keen said the documents are meant to emphasize certain texts from the Crown’s perspective and is meant to serve as a tool for the Judge.
“My second concern with this document is it was prepared in an attempt to simplify matters, but I fear it’s complicating matters,” Justice Dawson said.
The documents detail text messages and phone call exchanges between Keith and Marisa Hobbs, Voss, the alleged victim, as well as others involved in the case.
Wilkinson obtained more than 5,800 pages of raw data from the three cell phones. He testified there are some instances where there is missing data.
“It is clear we are missing a chunk of information here, is that correct?” Keen asked.
“That’s correct,” Wilkinson said.
But Keen added the Crown is “not seeking that any inference be drawn from the nature of an item being listed as deleted.”
The actual content of messages was not discussed in great detail because it was already done during the preliminary hearing, which took several hours, Keen said.
What was revealed was the frequency of communication between Keith and Marisa Hobbs and the alleged victim.
Between Nov. 16 and Nov. 19, 2016, the number of communications between Keith Hobbs and the victim rose to a low of 32 to a maximum of 198 on a given day.
Between Oct. 26 and Nov. 19, 2016, Hobbs phoned the victim 14 times and sent two text messages.
During cross-examination, assistant defense counsel, Naomi Lutes, asked Wilkinson if any phones from others involved in the case were seized, to which he said no.
“You agree it might assist us to paint a fuller picture if you had had the physical devices or data for some of the other involved parties, for example (the victim)?” she asked.
“For some of the communications for (the victim), yes,” Wilkinson said.
The Crown will call its eighth witness to testify Wednesday morning.
Complete coverage of Hobbs trial:
Day 1: Keith Hobbs trial starts today
Witness testifies of interactions between Hobbs and alleged extortion victim
Day 2: Details of extortion allegations heard at Hobbs trial
Day 3: Videos from USB drive given by Hobbs shown in court
Day 4: Alleged extortion victim calls behaviour in videos horrid and awful
'Pack your toothbrush' Hobbs alleged warned extortion victim
Day 5: Alleged extortion victim trying to ‘buy silence:’ Greenspan
Day 6: Alleged extortion victim believes Voss was ‘swayed’ by Keith and Marisa Hobbs
Witness testifies of agreement signed between alleged extortion victim and accused
