Live blog: The Mark Twitchell Trial Wednesday March 16, 2011
1:10 Moderator:
Proceedings are set to start at 1:30. Ben will be posting shortly.
1:36 Moderator:
Ben has gone into the courtroom for thet start of the proceedings. Our plan is that Ben will sitting in the courtroom and coming out to post.
1:39 Moderator:
The Journal was hoping to be able to live blog the trial from inside the courtroom But that was denied by the judge. "Justice Terry Clackson denied a request by the Edmonton Journal and CBC to have Internet access in court during the trial, which is expected to last seven weeks with 72 people slated to take the stand. He said there would be a ban on all electronic devices by media and the general public in court. "
1:43 Moderator:
Click here for full coverage of the Mark Twitchell trial.
2:09 bengelinas:
Mark Twitchell has pleaded not guilty to the charge of first-degree murder in the October 2008 death of Johnny Altinger. When Twitchell's trial opened this afternoon in Edmonton, he instead attempted to enter an alternate plea of guilty for improperly interfering with a body. The Crown prosecutors rejected this alternate plea.
The jury will soon hear the Crown's opening arguments.
2:46 bengelinas:
Crown prosecutor Lawrence Van Dyke has just wrapped opening arguments on behalf of himself and fellow Crown prosecutor Avril Inglis.
2:46 bengelinas:
Van Dyke outlined a timeline for the jury that stretched over five weeks in the fall of 2008.
2:49 bengelinas:
First he brought up Twitchell's film House of Cards. Most of the filming took place in a rented garage over the weekend of Sept. 26-28, 2008. The focus of the film, Van Dyke said, was a killer who uses an internet dating website to lure his victim to his death.
2:54 bengelinas:
Then Van Dyke brought up Oct 3, 2008, the night the Crown submits a 30-something user of the dating website plentyoffish.com was directed by someone (he believed to be an attractive young woman) to the same garage after exchanging messages. Once inside the garage, it is expected this witness will tell the jury he was attacked, first with a stun baton, which apparently had little effect. His masked attacker then produced what looked to be a gun, ordered him to the floor and put tape over his eyes. He then decided to fight back, pulling the tape off his eyes and grabbing the barrel of the gun, which felt fake. Van Dyke said a struggle ensued and the victim managed to escape.
2:55 bengelinas:
There's much more to say, but I need to get back in to listen to the Crown's first witness.
2:55 bengelinas:
2:56 bengelinas:
1. The Crown says police have since recovered the partial remains of Johnny Altinger, apparently dumped in a sewer. They were found two blocks from Twitchell's parents' house more than a year after the charge, following a visit by police to Twitchell in Remand.
3:00 bengelinas:
2. The Crown will focus at least some of its case on a document recovered from the memory of Twitchell's laptop, called "skconfessions." It details the author's progression into becoming a "serial killer." Names in the document have been changed (Twitchell's wife's name is Jess, the author's wife's name is Tess). But the Crown will argue that beyond this, the details contained in the more than 30 pages will be shown to be an accurate account of what happened to Johnny Altinger.
3:00 bengelinas: I'll be back
3:01 bengelinas:
Check edmontonjournal.com in the meantime for my colleague Alex Zabjek's updated story.
Thursday March 17, 2011 11:20 bengelinas:
On Wednesday afternoon, the jury heard from forensics officer Randy Topp, who was at the time a sergeant in the Edmonton Police Service's Forensic Identification Section. He presented a series of video tours of the primary "crime scenes" in the Twitchell case, including the garage where the Crown argues Altinger was killed and Twitchell's St. Albert home. We have created a Google map showing the approximate locations of each scene. Each icon on the map links to a portion of a video presented in court. You can find the map here:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/twitchell/4452865/story.html
11:21 bengelinas:
This morning the jury is hearing from Const. Gary Short, who worked under Topp in the ident unit. It was his job to take pictures of the scenes. He said he took over 1,200. Many were presented this morning.
11:22 bengelinas:
Among many orienting shots of Johnny Altinger's apartment, Mark Twitchell's home and the cars belonging to both men, were glimpses of evidence later seized.
11:23 bengelinas:
In the trunk of Twitchell's car, Short noted a gas can with gas in it and blood stains in the interior fabric.
11:25 bengelinas:
In Twitchell's home, police found swords kept in various corners, a box for an electronic stun gun, draft designs for a metal chair and table, and a goalie mask with gold stripes painted across its face, the mouth of the mask apparently cut out.
11:29 bengelinas:
Short also noted a Dexter novel found in the back seat of Twitchell's car.
2:51 bengelinas:
After the jury viewed Short's photos, copies were supplied to the media. We have posted one photo on our website that shows Luminol sprayed by police across the floor of the garage Twitchell rented. You can see it here:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Bloody+evidence+found+early+Twitchell+search/4458027/story.html
2:52 bengelinas:
Luminol is used by police to expose traces of blood.
2:54 bengelinas:
June 2010. The grate was in an alley off 129 Avenue and 86 Street. A medical examiner descended into the 2.8 metre deep sewer shaft where he recovered the remains.
3:25 bengelinas:
Const. Nancy Allen, also with the forensics, detailed items found in Twitchell's Grand AM, Alberta plates DRK JEDI.
3:26 bengelinas:
They included a hunting knife with what appeared to be blood on it and a laptop, also with what appeared to be blood on it.
3:32 bengelinas:
Sticky notes were also found in Twitchell's car. Some were rough maps that led him from St. Albert into the city and on to Wetaskiwin. Other stickies had hand-written notes that included, among other instructions: "Ship phone while its on," "return addy of vic," "destroy wallet contents" and "kill room clean sweep."
5:30 bengelinas:
Another note found in Twitchell's car mapped a path from St. Albert, where Twitchell lived, to the crossroads near Johnny Altinger's condo.
5:30 bengelinas:
Retiring for the day. Check back tomorrow, when more evidence is expected from Const. Allen.
Friday March 18, 2011 9:18 bengelinas:
Good morning. The Twitchell trial is set to resume at 10 a.m. MT. I will be updating throughout the day as much as possible. It gets tricky because I'm not allowed to take my laptop into the courtroom. I have been writing in the hall -- during breaks, mostly. They have set up a room that broadcasts audio from the courtroom, but the forensics team is presenting hundreds of pictures and cardboard boxes full of evidence, things best seen if I'm to report accurately. During witness testimony I may experiment with reporting live off the audio. If and when I do this, I will let you so you will know what you're reading is based solely off the audio. It's not ideal.
11:07 bengelinas:
This morning, the hockey mask was entered as an exhibit. It's a large black, old-style goalie mask, an updated version of what Plante wore. Three gold stripes are painted along its face. The mouth area appears to have been removed. Allen said it was found in Twitchell's basement on a pile of clothes near his computer. You can see the mask in the video linked to Twitchell's home on this map: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/twitchell-case/map_evidence.html
11:09 bengelinas:
They also seized from the basement: hand-drawn diagrams of a large table with six legs and a chair, sales receipts for a butcher knife and handcuffs, and an air pistol with baby blue pellets.
11:12 bengelinas:
Still more items seized from Twitchell's house by police: - blue jeans and a sweatshirt with what appeared to be blood stains
- burned Dexter DVDs, labeled what Allen read as "52," though Crown prosecutor Lawrence Van Dyke asked if it could be "S2."
- a box for a Stunmaster stun baton - at last count, four swords
12:55 bengelinas:
When court resumed this morning, Allen began leading the jury through some 150 photos of evidence seized from Twitchell's garage studio.
12:55 bengelinas:
12:57 bengelinas:
They also found a bottle of corn syrup and two bottles of red food colouring.
1:00 bengelinas:
Among the items entered as exhibits in the trial were an extending stun baton, advertised as delivering 800,000 volts, found in the garage, as well as a metal pipe, wrapped on one end in black cloth tape.
1:01 bengelinas:
"I wanted to handle this exhibit as little as possible," Allen said of the pipe.
1:02 bengelinas:
She noted that the tape end of the pipe was discoloured by what appeared to be blood. "I would actually classify it as almost blood-soaked," Allen said.
1:02 bengelinas:
Blood and tissue appeared to be embedded in the opposite, threaded metal end of the pipe.
1:03 bengelinas:
Two more pipes were seized from the garage. Both appeared to have been charred with unknown materials clinging to them.
1:07 bengelinas:
Police also found the game processing kit in the garage. The green case, with a speck of what appeared to be blood on it, housed a set of sharp knives, a large fork and a handsaw, as well as a meat cleaver that didn't fit the set.
1:13 bengelinas:
Between Twitchell's house and garage, there were numerous other exhibits seized and entered in court today, like Smith and Wesson handcuffs, a gas BB handgun, and receipts showing the purchase of two combination locks and several clean-up items, some of which were shown to be found in the garage.
1:15 bengelinas:
The police witnesses so far have offered little context for the items, beyond what they are, where they were found and what evidence was found on them. Allen has avoided stating the presence of blood in any absolute terms. Most of the items with significant stains that appeared to be blood were sent to an RCMP lab to be tested. The jury has not heard the results of those tests.
3:35 bengelinas:
Allen talked the jury through hundreds of photos detailing every conceivable angle of the edged tools in the game processing kit found in Twitchell's garage:
- meat cleaver: not part of the set
- caper knife: a small blade that thins slightly at the base - skinner knife: a slimmer knife with a hook at the end - boning/fillet knife: very thin, long blade
- butcher knife: long, wide blade
- shears/scissors: heavy duty with a clip to keep them closed - saw: small enough to be held in one hand, long teeth on the blade - carving fork: two long prongs
- handle with sharpener edge
All these tools had suspected blood stains or blood flakes on them.
3:36 bengelinas:
There was also a rib spreader in the kit. There were no stains found on this tool.
9:59 Moderator:
Ben will be back in court on Monday.
In the meantime read The Journal's special coverage of the Twitchell trial.
Monday March 21, 2011 10:38 bengelinas:
Mark Twitchell's ex-wife Jess Twitchell is now on the stand, being questioned by Crown prosecutor Avril Inglis.
10:44 bengelinas:
Jess testified that she was married to Mark from January 2007 to December 2010, when their divorce was finalized. Today is the first time she has seen Mark Twitchell since police first came to their St. Albert home on October 21, 2008. Police told her then that they were obtaining a warrant to search the home.
10:48 bengelinas:
Mark and Jess Twitchell met on the dating website plentyoffish.com. They have a daughter together. When Inglis asked Jess for their daughter's name, her voice cracked and she began to cry. "Chloe," she said.
The little girl was nine months old at the time at the time of her husband's arrest.
10:50 bengelinas:
Jess said that the marriage had been troubled in the months leading up to the arrest. Mark was sleeping in the basement. Jess was sleeping in the master bedroom upstairs. In October 2008, he revealed to her that he had not had a job since May 2008.
10:52 bengelinas:
There was also Xpress Entertainment, his film production company.
"He was selling scripts and had a couple of projects in development, but it wasn't making any money," Jess told the jury.
10:56 bengelinas:
The Crown went through photos of things photographed in the Twitchell home, including three books: Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay, a book in the Troy series by David Gemmell, and a book on crime scene investigation. Jess said the first two books belonged to Mark. The third book she had never seen before. So far it is unclear why the Crown in concerned with these particular books.
11:00 bengelinas:
Jess said her husband didn't say much about his short film House of Cards, filmed in a garage on the south side the last weekend in September.
She said Mark told her: "that it was inspired by some marital troubles we were having, mixed with some horror materials." During the filming she was at home with the baby.
11:37 bengelinas:
Inglis asked Jess Twitchell to go through the weekend beginning Friday, October 10, 2008, the last day anyone heard from Johnny Altinger.
11:40 bengelinas:
"Every Friday he went to his therapy session, which was on the south side and started at seven," Jess said.
She called him that Friday night, after 9 p.m. "I said: 'Where are you?' And he said he was at the gym." The gym they had just joined was closed. Mark told her he had gone to their old gym, which stayed open later.
She couldn't remember when Mark returned home that night.
The next day, Jess said she spent most of the day with Mark. She said she didn't notice anything particularly off about him. His mood was normal, she said, and normal for Mark was: "Easy-going, kind of relaxed."
11:49 bengelinas:
This was Thanksgiving weekend. On Sunday the Twitchells had dinner at Mark's parents' house. Jess said Mark was using his parents' garage at the time to make a Halloween costume -- Iron Man -- out of plastic. Making elaborate costumes was a hobby of his. The year prior, he made a complicated Bumblebee costume, a Transformer, and ended up winning two Halloween costume contests, taking home thousands of dollars and a motorcycle.
11:50 bengelinas:
On Monday, they had Thanksgiving dinner at her parents' place. All through the long weekend, she remembers nothing off about Mark's appearance or mood.
11:56 bengelinas:
She remembers getting into Mark's car to move it some time after that. She said it smelled like gasoline in the car. "He said he was filling up a jerrycan to keep in the trunk and he had spilled it," the jury heard.
"I said we already have a can of gas in the garage, which we had gotten for the new lawnmower. He said he wanted another one. I was late, so I just said: OK."
Jess also noticed coveralls in the backseat.
12:00 bengelinas:
The jury has left for lunch break. Court is expected to reconvene at 2 p.m. Check back for more this afternoon.
2:14 bengelinas:
"I was outside working in the garden and I came in," Jess Twitchell said. "Mark was on the phone and the computer at the same time in the office. He didn't hear me coming down the stairs. I noticed that he was on a website called Ashley Madison, and I recognized it to be a website where people who are married or in a relationship are looking to have affairs."
2:16 bengelinas:
She told him to get off the phone. "He said that he was doing some freelance work for a web magazine about internet dating and internet affairs."
2:16 bengelinas:
When she didn't believe him, he said he could prove it, that she could listen in on a conference call with his editor, a man named Phil Porter.
2:20 bengelinas:
"I was very confused," Jess Twitchell said. She suspected her husband was having an affair. But he kept stressing that the article deal was real, that she would see when the money came.
2:24 bengelinas:
This was in September. When Jess and Mark last spoke on October 20, she asked him again: "Is Phil Porter real?" This time, Mark said no. Jess asked him who she had heard on the other end of the conference call. Mark said: "An actor I hired."
2:28 bengelinas:
Jess said Mark had previously admitted he was communicating with an old girlfriend via Facebook, that he was thinking of leaving Jess to be with his ex, that he had met with her and they had kissed. But Jess and Mark stayed together, despite this.
2:30 bengelinas:
From there, the questioning moved away from relationships to the evidence collected by police. Inglis showed Jess Twitchell a series of photos of items seized.
She recognized the laptop with Spider-Man stickers seized by police in Mark Twitchell's vehicle as her ex-husband's.
2:32 bengelinas:
Inglis: "How often did he use this laptop?"
2:32 bengelinas:
Jess Twitchell: "All the time. He took it to work every day."
2:34 bengelinas:
She identified the green hoodie seized by police as his. And the mask police found in the basement? She knew it to be a prop used in his horror film House of Cards. "When I first saw it it was just black," she said.
2:34 bengelinas:
The mask was found with gold stripes painted down the face and the mouth cut out.
2:40 bengelinas:
Under cross examination, Jess Twitchell said she didn't necessarily want Mark to stop making movies. "The agreement that we had made is that he would always continue to keep a day job until something bigger happened," she said.
2:43 bengelinas:
She also said she was unhappy with Mark's original ending to House of Cards. The victim was supposed to be decapitated. She said Mark ultimately agreed with her suggestion that the victim not lose his head. "I felt very strongly that that was not appropriate or necessary," she said. "I didn't like it."
2:45 bengelinas:
Jess Twitchell then finished her testimony.
2:46 bengelinas:
The next witness was Carolyn Flexhaug, the woman who rented the garage to Mark Twitchell. She showed his lease and a tenant ledger showing payments he made.
2:46 bengelinas:
She said the upstairs area of the house on the same property was rented to a group of temporary foreign workers, while someone else lived in the basement.
2:48 bengelinas:
It cost Mark Twitchell $175 a month to rent the garage.
2:55 bengelinas:
The man who lived in the basement was Daniel Bonke, who has now taken the stand.
2:55 bengelinas:
He said the windows of the garage in the backyard were: "completely blacked out."
2:56 bengelinas:
He didn't see or hear anything unusual.
3:06 bengelinas:
Antonio Guterrez Guterrez is the next witness. He lived upstairs with several other people, all from Mexico. One day, he remembers a group of guys coming to the house. They asked for Mark. Not exactly sure who Mark was, he directed them to the backyard. He said they started to cover the windows of the garage with plastic bags. "They had lights and a camera, like
they were doing a video."
3:24 bengelinas:
Court resumes shortly.
3:29 bengelinas:
Mike Young has taken the stand, a local filmmaker and friend of Mark Twitchell. They've been friends for six years, he says. They got to know each other when they both worked at an IT company called Corporate Express.
3:33 bengelinas:
They came to work together on Twitchell's Star Wars fan film Secrets of the Rebellion. Young did set design, props and location scouting on the film from the beginning of 2005 until the middle of 2006. He called Mark Twitchell by a nickname: "Twitch."
3:36 bengelinas:
He said the garage was a location for Twitchell's short film, working title: House of Cards. Young built props and sets for the film. Young had a key for the garage. There was an additional lock, a standard Mastercraft combination lock that Young bought at Mark Twitchell's request.
3:37 bengelinas:
"We were prop building, welding a table and chair together and cleaning out the garage, as there was a lot of stuff left over from the previous tenant," Young told the court.
3:43 bengelinas:
Mark Twitchell asked Young to make the table and chair. Young said he designed the table and chair after rough suggestions from Twitchell. Inglis presented Young with hand-drawn designs of the table and chair found in Twitchell's home, entered as evidence last week. Young said he wasn't sure if he had seen the drawings before. But in photos of the inside of the garage, he identified the metal/wood table and iron chair found in the garage as the furniture he helped build for the film.
3:43 bengelinas:
Young said they covered the windows to control the light during filming.
3:44 bengelinas:
When asked to list the prop weapons to be used in the film, Young recalled novelty handcuffs, a generic hunters kit and a sword.
3:46 bengelinas:
"Novelty" and "generic" are his words.
3:54 bengelinas:
Young was at the garage the morning after the shoot. "The props were still there. Some of the debris had been moved outside." He was there over the course of three days to build a "pet tank" using Twitchell's tools.
3:59 bengelinas:
Young said Twitchell sold the Bumblebee costume for "a substantial amount" after winning big prizes at Halloween contests put on by both Sonic and the Bear radio stations.
4:01 bengelinas:
Fake blood was used in House of Cards. "I believe the final plan was to use food dye and corn (syrup)," Young said.
On unsealed concrete, the food dye can stain, Young said. To clean it up, Young said industrial strength solvent would work well, but any household cleaner would do. He said they had some plastic to lay down for the fake blood.
4:02 bengelinas:
David Puff is now on the stand. He's a freelance videographer and editor.
4:04 bengelinas:
Twitchell used Puff's green screen at NAIT for Secrets of the Rebellion. Puff signed on to be the director of photography for the project, responsible for lighting and shot composition.
4:04 bengelinas:
Their relationship was professional and friendly, but they weren't close, Puff said.
4:06 bengelinas:
They worked together on a movie trailer for a feature project called Day Players that Twitchell was trying to get off the ground.
4:07 bengelinas:
Then Puff worked with Twitchell on House of Cards over three days in September of 2008.
4:09 bengelinas:
"He was bored with doing post-production on Star Wars," Puff said of communication with Twitchell about the film. "He wanted to do something new to potentially show investors. He wanted to do something new and that was House of Cards."
4:16 bengelinas:
According to Puff, the film is about a man who was planning to cheat on his wife. "He was speaking with whom he thought was a woman on an online dating site. He lies to his wife to go and meet this woman. He says he's going to the gym. When he arrives at the house to meet this woman, he is electrocuted with a Taser." When the man wakes up he is interrogated and mentally tortured by a man in a mask: "who ultimately kills him and dismembers his body." At the end of the movie, the whole thing is shown to be "a concoction by an author who is writing the story." The twist: the author's apparently a killer himself, with a mask and tools that could be used for killing. House of Cards ends with the author saying to his wife: "You were right, honey. It's better to you write what you know."
4:16 bengelinas:
Correction: "It's better when you write what you know." This line is as Puff remembers it, and not necessarily as it appears in the House of Cards script.
4:17 bengelinas:
The victim in the film is stabbed in the chest with a samurai sword.
4:19 bengelinas:
The kill scene in the script ends with the samurai sword going through the victim, but Puff says there was an additional sequence they never filmed, in which the killer takes a cleaver, hacks the victim's body apart off-screen and fills plastic bags with the parts.
4:20 bengelinas:
They intended to blend two shots in post-production: one of the actor getting stabbed, the other of the sword going through a small bag of fake blood.
4:21 bengelinas:
4:21 bengelinas:
The victim in the film was seated in the chair, duct taped to it.
4:23 bengelinas:
Crown prosecutor Lawrence Van Dyke asked Puff to describe how messy was the fake blood was when it was released. Puff answered: "Not very. It fell to the floor below the chair. I think we may have even had something to catch it."
4:23 bengelinas:
Puff didn't recall any knives or pipes being used in the filming. Just the swords.
4:24 bengelinas:
In cross-examination, Twitchell's lawyer Charles Davison asked if there was actually a scene where the killer brandished a knife. Puff answered: "Possibly."
4:29 bengelinas:
Puff also said they blocked out the windows to control light during shots.
4:30 bengelinas:
They did this using garbage bags and duct tape.
4:31 bengelinas:
"I've never really seen the footage since it was shot, since it was handed over to Mark," Puff said.
4:32 bengelinas:
That's it for the day. Check back here at 10 a.m. Tuesday for more. If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me: [email protected]
Tuesday March 22, 2011 10:18 bengelinas:
Mark Twitchell's friend Jason Howatson has taken the stand. He worked on Twitchell's Star Wars film as well as House of Cards. Howatson says he and two other friends built the table and chair in the garage a week before the shoot, after discussions with Twitchell about what he needed.
10:21 bengelinas:
He says there was nothing to his knowledge that would need to be burned for the film.
10:25 bengelinas:
Mark said he would be bringing in oil drum, but he didn't know what it would be used for.
10:26 bengelinas:
Clarification: Howatson didn't know what the drum would be used for.
10:26 bengelinas:
Howatson said the table, made of metal and wood, was heavy and would take two people to move.
10:31 bengelinas:
Howatson says he received a text from Mark Twitchell after the shoot. It said police might call because the set had been broken into.
10:36 bengelinas:
e-mail, Twitchell apologized for everything that had been going on. "For now I have to recommend that everyone stop talking to the police," the e-mail from Twitchell stated. "You have a right to silence and you should exercise that right."
10:36 bengelinas:
Twitchell's e-mail told his friends to make the police "do their own jobs."
It stated: "Please, if they ask you questions, just tell them you don't know anything and if they want you to come in for a statement, kindly refuse."
10:46 bengelinas:
Scott Cooke, another friend of Twitchell's, is now testifying. He also worked on the Star Wars film, as well as House of Cards. He received an e-mail from Twitchell pitching the House of Cards film: "My co-producer and I are working on gathering the funds for Day Players as we speak," the e-mail said. "I have a month to kill so I decided we should produce a short thriller."
10:49 bengelinas:
He needed Cooke and friends to figure out how to stage a convincing decapitation with limited resources. The dark space of the garage would be an advantage, the e-mail stated.
10:58 bengelinas:
In a separate e-mail to Cooke and Howatson, Twitchell asked them to make the table and chair. The e-mail stated that the table needed to be strong, made of high-grade wood with six legs. "This had to be precision quality," Twitchell wrote. The armless metal chair had to be able to be bolted to a concrete floor -- "almost like an electric chair size but without the bells and whistles."
Cooke made the suggestion to Twitchell to wrap the surface of the table in metal to make its surface appear entirely metal.
10:58 bengelinas:
These e-mails were sent it late August.
11:01 bengelinas:
The table's surface was 6'6" by 4'. It was not to be built for temporary use. Twitchell wrote that he wanted the table to be used as a work bench after House of Cards was completed.
11:34 bengelinas:
The House of Cards draft script is being read to the jury. I am making a copy of the entire script that will go up once the jury has heard it.
11:56 bengelinas:
The jury has finished hearing the script. We are in the process of uploading the document now.
11:57 bengelinas:
Alas, for all the cool things about coveritlive.com, it does not support directly uploading pdfs.
12:02 bengelinas:
Here are the aforementioned emails Twitchell sent to his friends, both before House of Cards and after police first searched Twitchell's St. Albert home. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Twitchell+email+evidence/4484623/story.html
12:07 bengelinas:
The actor who played the victim in House of Cards is now on the stand. He says he does not remember decapitation being part of the script he was working from.
12:08 bengelinas:
12:11 bengelinas:
Heward sat in the chair. Tools were laid out on the big table. He recalls seeing two samurai swords, a handgun, a stun gun, a meat cleaver, and a laptop on the table.
12:15 bengelinas:
Mark Twitchell told Heward to bring two identical shirts for the garage shoot. One would get bloody when the script called for the death of Heward's character by samurai sword. The shirt was put around couch foam and a fake blood packet. Heward helped make the fake blood (out of red dye and corn syrup, court has already heard). Heward said not much fake blood was spilled when a samurai sword went through the dummy Heward. "It was a fairly tidy process," Heward says.
12:31 bengelinas:
There was an issue with the e-mail exhibit pdfs. They will be up again shortly.
12:32 bengelinas:
House of Cards draft script, written by Mark Twitchell:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/House+of+Cards+script/4484735/story.html Please note that in a later version, the victim is not decapitated.
12:53 bengelinas:
Court broke for lunch. It resumes at 2 p.m. I'll re-post the emails entered as evidence this morning here as soon as they're on Scribd.
1:02 bengelinas:
Here are a pair of e-mails sent to Mark Twitchell's friends in advance of the filming of House of Cards: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/twitchell-case/Twitchell+email+evidence/4484623/story.html
As the police zeroed in on Twitchell, court heard that he sent this e-mail to friends asking them not to cooperate with police: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/twitchell-case/Twitchel+email+talk+police/4484940/story.html
2:12 bengelinas:
The jury is back. The next witness is William Stanic, a 46-year-old quality control inspector who used to work with the alleged victim John Altinger.
2:17 bengelinas:
Stanic worked a lathe at Argus Machine when Altinger worked quality control there. The friends often visited at work. Pretty much every shift they had hours to chat, usually when Altinger came by to inspect Stanic's equipment. They both used lavalife.com and plentyoffish.com for online dating and often shared stories about the online dating experience.
2:21 bengelinas:
The last time Stanic saw Altinger was during their night shift on October 9, 2008. But he communicated with Altinger the next day on MSN Messenger. Altinger mentioned that he met a girl on plentyoffish.com, and he was going to meet her at 7 p.m. at her place. "It was for sex. That's what he said."
2:22 bengelinas:
Altinger sent Stanic a link to the woman's profile. He remembers seeing four photos connected to the profile of a woman, about 35, wearing a bikini. She was pretty, with light brown hair. Altinger told Stanic her instructions for the meet-up were very weird. She wouldn't give him a phone number or address. He was to meet her at a garage.
2:30 bengelinas:
Altinger sent Stanic an e-mail that night, forwarding messages he received from the woman he was meeting.
2:36 bengelinas:
The first message made it sound like the woman was nervous about meeting Altinger, and she would take some necessary precautions.
a lighter note, you said you have four days off. How long can I keep you for?"
2:36 bengelinas:
The second message directed Altinger to a garage on the southside off the Whitemud. "I'll just leave the garage door partly open for you to sneak into," the e-mail said.
2:37 bengelinas:
After Altinger left for the date, Stanic heard nothing more from him until Monday, October 13, 2008. He received an e-mail from Altinger's Hotmail with the subject line: "It's all good."
2:40 bengelinas:
It began with the greeting: "Hey man."
2:40 bengelinas:
The e-mail said: "No worries on my end. I'm good. Better than good."
2:40 bengelinas:
It said he had hit it off with the girl he was meeting, that she was really wealthy, and had offered to take him: "on a tropical vacation for three months." It said he was thinking about taking her up on the offer, that it would be something spontaneous to do before he died.
2:41 bengelinas:
Stanic found the words: "Hey man," odd. Altinger never said that.
2:42 bengelinas:
When Stanic stepped off the witness stand, Mark Twitchell's lawyer Charles Davison said: "We are not disputing that the e-mails from the 13th of October were not written by Mr. Altinger."
2:46 bengelinas:
Altinger's childhood friend Dale Smith is now on the stand. He says Altinger called him on Oct. 10 at 6 p.m., just prior to the date.
2:47 bengelinas:
"The instructions were out of the ordinary," Smith says. "I wasn't really too happy about the instructions and stuff. I told John to give me a phone call when he got there and give me the address before he went in the place. He agreed he would."
2:48 bengelinas:
Altinger seemed "light-hearted" during the call.
2:49 bengelinas:
Smith received a second phone call from Altinger around 6:30 p.m. He said the woman wasn't there, but he met a guy in the garage. "He said the guy in the garage was making a movie and (the guy) showed (Altinger) a replica gun."
2:51 bengelinas:
"Later that night I got an e-mail, I'm not sure what time," Smith said. "It said: 'Hee hee. She's home. I'm going back.'"
2:54 bengelinas:
Smith phoned Altinger several times that night. Smith was concerned. Altinger didn't call back.
2:55 bengelinas:
2:55 bengelinas:
On Sunday, Smith and Altinger were supposed to go out and ride motorbikes. Altinger was going to teach Smith how to ride Smith's new bike.
2:58 bengelinas:
When he didn't hear from Altinger, Smith says he grew nervous. Smith called a friend to tell him he thought Altinger was missing.
3:02 bengelinas:
On Sunday night, Smith and a couple friends went to Altinger's condo. There was no answer at the door. They went into the parkade and saw that Altinger's car, a red Mazda 3, was gone.
3:05 bengelinas:
The next day, October 13, Smith received an e-mail from Altinger's Shaw.ca account.
3:07 bengelinas:
The e-mail said Altinger had met: "an extraordinary woman named Jen," who had invited him on a tropical vacation to Costa Rica. It said they'd be staying at her home there and he wouldn't be back until Dec. 10. The e-mail ended: "See you around the holidays, Johnny."
3:08 bengelinas:
"I didn't think it was Johnny," Smith said.
3:09 bengelinas:
There were no playful jokes. And Altinger usually didn't sign his e-mails, Smith says.
3:10 bengelinas:
He sent a response, asking who would be picking up Altinger's brother at the airport when he came to visit. This was meant to test the sender. Altinger's brother wasn't actually coming, and Altinger would know this.
3:10 bengelinas:
Smith received no response to this e-mail.
3:14 bengelinas:
Smith and other friends went to the police. When the police didn't have enough information to warrant a search of Altinger's suite, Smith and friends went into the suite themselves through a main floor window.
3:14 bengelinas:
Smith says they found Altinger's passport, his shaving kit -- "everything he needed to go on vacation was still there."
3:16 bengelinas:
The Costa Rica thing never made sense to Smith. "I know John. He doesn't like warm places. He lived in Hawaii once. He doesn't like the heat."
3:16 bengelinas:
Court is now on a twenty minute break.
3:40 bengelinas:
To clarify a prior quote: The e-mail sent to Altinger from the woman he was to meet for a date on Oct 10 more correctly read: "On a lighter note though if we really gel you said you had 4 days off. How long can I keep you for if I choose? Maybe
you should pack for a few days lol."
3:43 bengelinas:
Marcelo Souza is the next witness. He is on night shift, has been waiting all day and is sleep-deprived. Souza came to know Altinger through Dale Smith, the previous witness.
3:50 bengelinas:
Smith called Souza about Altinger in mid-October. At the time, Souza had not seen Altinger for a couple years. Smith showed Souza the e-mail he had received from Altinger's account. The e-mail struck him as off. Altinger's writing style was different, Souza says, not so formal, always humorous.
3:52 bengelinas:
Souza and his wife called the police, who said they would come see them on Oct 15 to take a statement. Souza, his wife and Smith waited all night for the police to come, but Souza says they didn't show up.
3:54 bengelinas:
Two days later, Souza was among the friends who slipped into Altinger's condo, accessing it through a window. Souza noted: "the remains of a meal on the stove." Altinger's bed was unmade.
4:09 bengelinas:
Now on the stand, Souza's wife Carrie-Lynn says she tried to add Johnny Altinger to Facebook after he went missing. She had never met him. He was her husband's friend. Altinger didn't accept Carrie-Lynn Souza's friend request. But later she was among a group of friends who received a Facebook message from Altinger's account, stating he was lying on a beach and would be gone for a while.
4:10 bengelinas:
"The whole thing was unusual because I didn't know Johnny on a personal level," Carrie-Lynn Souza says.
4:14 bengelinas:
On October 15, Carrie-Lynn Souza exchanged e-mails with someone using Johnny Altinger's account.
4:16 bengelinas:
CarriLynn sent an mail to Altinger. She stressed that Dale Smith had repeatedly tried to reach Altinger via phone and e-mail with no response, the exception being the mass e-e-mail about leaving for Costa Rica. "An e-e-mail at this point is not satisfactory," Souza wrote. She asked Altinger to call Smith or they would have to follow up with police.
4:17 bengelinas:
She received a response, via e-mail, stating that there was no reason to be worried. "I'm on vacation and loving it," the response said.
4:19 bengelinas:
There would be no phone call. Phone reception was bad and cost a lot down in Costa Rica, the response said. The e-mail further pledged Dale Smith would be contacted.
4:19 bengelinas:
Carrie-Lynn Souza responded: "Hi John: Please respond as soon as you get this, or at least call Dale. Everyone is concerned."
4:20 bengelinas:
She received no further e-mails from Altinger's account.
Desmond Harte is the next witness. He was Johnny Altinger's boss at Argus Machine. He says on October 13, 2008, he received an e-mail from Altinger's account, a brief resignation letter. "I have another offer that is just too good to pass up so this is my notice I will no longer be continuing my employment with your fine organization," it read. "Rest assured I would not be leaving unless the new path I've chosen was truly life-altering."
4:28 bengelinas:
Harte responded, asking where to forward Altinger's last cheque. He received no response.
4:28 bengelinas:
The money due to Altinger from Argus was roughly $1,470.
4:29 bengelinas:
Court has finished for the day. Check back tomorrow at 10 a.m. for more on the case.
Wednesday March 23, 2011 10:17 bengelinas:
Good morning. A reader requested via e-mail that I clarify when I am writing off the audio feed and when I am present in the actual courtroom. We are not allowed to use phones or computers in the courtroom, so when witnesses give testimony I will most often be writing off the live audio feed that is playing in a nearby courtroom. This will allow for reporting in real time. When visual evidence is the focus of testimony, I will be up in the courtroom taking notes and my entries will generally be longer and more sporadic.
10:17 bengelinas:
This morning I am writing off the audio feed.
10:22 bengelinas:
Currently on the stand is a registered nurse named Deborah Teichroeb, who met Johnny Altinger over plentyoffish.com. They went out but decided they'd make better friends. They remained friends until Altinger tried to pursue a romantic relationship with Deborah in the summer of 2008. She began to ignore Altinger's calls in July, and didn't hear from him again until October 13, when she received the same e-mails about Altinger's sudden decision to go to Costa Rica with a girl he'd just met.
10:24 bengelinas:
"The John I knew did not do things on a whim, and that's what I thought was strange," she says. Altinger was known to plan for months before taking a trip.
Most often Altinger would refer to Deborah as "Sunshine." She wondered: "Why wouldn't he say: 'Hey Sunshine?'" She found it odd.
10:25 bengelinas:
She went on MSN Messenger on October 13, and saw Altinger's status on the instant messaging program had changed to read: "I've got a one way ticket to heaven. I'm never coming back."
10:30 bengelinas:
Const. Marlin Ehrenholz is the next witness. He was a patrol officer in the fall of 2008 who took the call from Altinger's friends about his disappearance. He responded first to the garage with his partner Const. Maxwell.
10:32 bengelinas:
It was late when they responded, close to midnight. They knocked on the door of the house and there was no answer. They went to the garage in the back and noted the covered windows. Ehrenholz peeked through a small hole and could see that there was a light on in the garage. It appeared clean and there was no one inside, as far as the officer could see.
10:34 bengelinas:
The officers left the garage, and after speaking with Altinger's friends, headed for the Edmonton International Airport. They drove around the airport parking lot, searching for Altinger's red Mazda 3. It wasn't there.
10:35 bengelinas:
To clarify, this all happened in the late evening of Oct. 17 and early morning of Oct. 18.
10:37 bengelinas:
Ehrenholz went back to the station and e-mailed Altinger's Shaw.ca address. The constable asked Altinger to contact police as soon as possible.
10:41 bengelinas:
Ehrenholz and Maxwell passed the investigation onto day shift Const. Dennis Dalziel, who is now testifying.
10:47 bengelinas:
Dalziel also had a partner: Const. Daniel Woodall. The officers went to Altinger's apartment that morning, entered and seized a computer. They also took a look around the parkade, where they found Altinger's two bikes, but no car.
10:50 bengelinas:
Dalziel also wrote an e-mail to Altinger's address, stating that the police were concerned for his well-being. He asked that Altinger call them.
10:50 bengelinas:
The police never heard from Altinger.
10:56 bengelinas:
The officers passed the case back to Ehrenholz and his partner Const. Christopher Maxwell that evening. Maxwell is now on the stand. He says they started their Oct. 18 shift around 9 p.m. by calling the garage landlord, who provided them the name "Mark" and a phone number.
10:56 bengelinas:
Shortly after 10 p.m., Maxwell spoke to a man who identified himself as Mark Twitchell.
10:58 bengelinas:
Twitchell confirmed that he had been renting the garage for the past few months. He said he was using the garage to shoot a short film.
10:58 bengelinas:
"He denied knowing John Altinger," Maxwell says. "He said he was last at the garage on Friday, Oct. 10."
11:00 bengelinas:
Maxwell asked Twitchell if he remembered a guy showing up around 6 p.m. Twitchell said: "No."
11:00 bengelinas:
Maxwell asked if Twitchell remembered seeing a red car at the garage. Twitchell said: "No."
11:01 bengelinas:
Maxwell asked if a female was supposed to meet a guy at the garage. Twitchell said: "No."
11:02 bengelinas:
Twitchell told Maxwell he was at the garage until about 5:30, cleaning props.
11:03 bengelinas:
cooperative.
11:06 bengelinas:
Maxwell and an acting Southwest Division sergeant met Twitchell at the garage around 11:25 pm. Twitchell arrived in a maroon-coloured Grand AM sedan. Twitchell and the officers walked around the garage to the man door. "Mr. Twitchell said the padlock that was on the lock of the man door was not his," Maxwell says.
11:09 bengelinas:
Maxwell unscrewed the latch that held the Dudley-brand combination lock on the door and Twitchell unlocked the deadbolt with a key.
11:12 bengelinas:
Maxwell went in first. "When I first walked in I could smell the strong smell of something burnt," Maxwell says. He spotted an oil drum. It was discoloured in places, almost scorched. Maxwell opened up the lid and could see the charred remains of something inside.
11:13 bengelinas:
"I asked him about the barrel. He said he had it delivered in order to be used as a garbage can. He said when he last saw it, it was not scorched."
11:13 bengelinas:
"He said he had no knowledge of how it was burnt."
11:14 bengelinas:
(court on 15 minute break)
11:39 bengelinas:
Const. Maxwell noticed two tables in the garage: one that he describes as large and metal. The other, smaller table was wooden. The smaller table had cleaning supplies on it, including an empty bottle of ammonia, an empty wrapper for a disposable plastic drop cloth, an empty wrapper for rubber gloves, and a receipt from Home Depot dated October 15, 2008.
11:41 bengelinas:
After having a look around the room, the officers decided it would be a good idea to get out of the garage and call their staff sergeant. Maxwell took Twitchell to his police car and they chatted in the front seat for about an hour and a half. During that time, Maxwell had Twitchell complete a written statement. The conversation was "pleasant." They talked about his short film and Twitchell's interest in Star Wars. Maxwell invariably came back to the same questions about seeing a red car or a man at the garage.
11:43 bengelinas:
Maxwell asked if Twitchell knew anyone who was using Internet sites to date and he said: "No."
11:43 bengelinas:
Maxwell asked if Twitchell was on any dating sites and he said: "No." Twitchell told Maxwell that he was happily married with a baby girl.
11:49 bengelinas:
Twitchell's written statement to Const. Maxwell on Oct. 19 is as follows:
11:52 bengelinas:
"I rented the garage at 5712 40 ave on Sept 2, 2008 for the purpose of making a short film. I shot that film the last weekend of September with some colleagues and two casted actors. One actor was local to Edmonton and the other was from Toronto. On the night of Oct 19, 2008 I got a call from Constable Maxwell saying there has been activity at the garage and asked me to come down to the garage to investigate. I came down to the location at 11:30 p.m. At that time we noticed a padlock on the door I was not familiar with and proceeded to remove it in order to enter the premises."
11:53 bengelinas:
"Once inside we noticed several items were out of place. The lights were left on, and a steel drum I used for a garbage can had been used as a fire pit. The constable asked me about the previous Friday. I told him that I was at the garage that Friday from 3:00 p.m. to about 5:30 p.m. cleaning up. I do not recall seeing anyone around the location at that time. When I left I locked the door using a padlock and locked the deadbolt. My padlock is silver on the outside with a black plastic center. The combination was 30, 8, 30."
11:54 bengelinas:
"People working on the movie include David Puff: director of photography, Scott Cooke: set builder, Mike Young: production designer, Jason Howatson: production assistant, Chris Heward: actor, and Robert Barnsley: actor. Mike Young and Jason Howatson had a key to the garage as well that I have still not recovered as of the date of this statement."
11:54 bengelinas: (end of statement)
12:06 bengelinas:
The acting sergeant with Const. Maxwell was Colleen Maynes, who is now a sergeant. She is on the stand.
12:06 bengelinas:
She describes the contents of the garage much like Maxwell did. "I noticed that it smelled like gasoline," she says -- as though something had been burned there. "The outside of the drum was partially blackened on the outside," she says.
12:08 bengelinas:
Maynes recalls looking into the barrel and seeing a bit of liquid. The smell of gas was "really pungent" at the barrel. The light was dim. "If I recall correctly it was just one bulb in the garage," Maynes says.
12:11 bengelinas:
Before he finished his testimony, Const. Maxwell said four numbers on the Home Depot receipt found in the garage matched a debit card in Twitchell's wallet.
12:18 bengelinas:
Court has broken for lunch and is expected to resume at 2 p.m.
1:25 bengelinas:
The Journal web mavens have helped me compile some e-mails sent from Johnny Altinger's account before and after his alleged disappearance. In chronological order, they form a narrative of sorts:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/4487086/story.html
2:01 bengelinas:
We're expecting some evidence to be entered this afternoon that will require me to be in the courtroom, so my posts will likely be more sporadic than they were this morning. I will try to provide updates as often as possible.
2:33 bengelinas:
The jury is viewing an interview Mark Twitchell did with Southwest Division detective Mike Tabler at the station, beginning just before 3 a.m. on October 19, 2008.
2:36 bengelinas:
Twitchell, dressed in a T-shirt, is led into the interview room. He sits and after confirming his name and address, calmly begins to tell Tabler about the garage. His tone is casual. His words flow freely. He speaks quickly as he tells Tabler about their shoot, which took place in the last week of September 2008. He says the windows were covered to control light in the garage. He says the short film they shot in the garage could be used as "pitching material" to help convince investors they know what they're doing. Twitchell talks about his movies, both past and on-going, from Star Wars to Day Players.
2:37 bengelinas:
"I love filmmaking," Twitchell says.
3:03 bengelinas:
Twitchell tells Tabler that he "lives on lists," thanks to a poor memory and a tendency to procrastinate. Making lists helps him stay organized, Twitchell says. "As long as I can check things off, I'm OK."
3:04 bengelinas:
He tells Tabler about the "nightmare" of a mess that gets made when using fake blood (corn syrup and red dye). "It's sticky as hell. It gets everywhere," Twitchell says. "Last time it got all over the chair. It got all over the floor."
3:09 bengelinas:
When Tabler asks if Twitchell is absolutely sure Oct. 10 was the last time he was at the garage, Twitchell says he isn't be sure, that maybe he visited it a couple days later to drop off some cleaning supplies. Tabler points out that Twitchell told him there were no specific, upcoming plans to use the garage for another shoot.
3:09 bengelinas:
Twitchell says it was one of the things he needed to cross off a list.
3:11 bengelinas:
Tabler says to Twitchell that it's "odd" he's filming a thriller movie at a garage that police are then called to on a missing persons complaint.
3:12 bengelinas:
"Yeah, that's freaky," Twitchell says, adding that when he got the call from police, he felt: "this weird chill." It didn't sit right, he says.
3:12 bengelinas:
He says he started thinking about who knew that they were shooting there.
3:43 bengelinas:
Twitchell tells Tabler that he essentially lives off a percentage of the investments he has brought in for future film projects. "Producer fees," he calls them.
3:45 bengelinas:
I am in the process of uploading the entire transcript of the video interview to Scribd.com. We also have the video, which we will post as soon as possible. I'll let you know when it is viewable on our website.
3:58 bengelinas:
Det. Mike Tabler interviews Mark Twitchell (transcript):
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/interview/4492361/story.html
4:11 bengelinas:
The night after the interview, Mark Twitchell e-mailed Det. Mike Tabler with some additional information.
4:15 bengelinas:
"Last night when we were talking I was running on fumes," the e-mail from Twitchell began. "I missed a couple things that may or may not be important to this case."
4:16 bengelinas:
missing persons case Tabler was questioning him about.
4:19 bengelinas:
The e-mail stated that on past Wednesday, some guy knocked on Twitchell's car window at a gas station near the garage. "I assume he's either going to ask for change or directions. Instead, he asks me if I want to take his car off his hands."
4:20 bengelinas:
Twitchell wrote that the guy: "had just shacked up with this rich sugar mama," that the guy no longer needed the car and was going to buy a new BMW.
4:21 bengelinas:
The e-mail stated that the guy offered to sell his car to Twitchell of $40.
4:22 bengelinas:
Twitchell wrote that he figured he'd find two tons of coke in the trunk, but: "In the worst case scenario I'm out 40 bucks, no big deal. Since I was going to the garage anyway, I asked him to bring it there. He actually did it and appeared to be legit."
4:27 bengelinas:
The e-mail said the guy's "even keel" disposition disappeared when they got to the garage. The e-mail said the guy was not interested in conversation and was quick to leave.
4:29 bengelinas:
The e-mail said the car was a Mazda 3 with manual transmission. In the e-mail, Twitchell stated that he couldn't drive a manual, so he called his friend Joss to drive to Joss' place.
4:29 bengelinas:
The e-mail then stated that Twitchell's car, with its "distinctive plate," was broken into on October 8 when he was at a Kevin Smith concert at the Winspear. Twitchell said his sunglasses were taken, as well as a bunch of receipts. Twitchell wondered if the "clown" who sold him the Mazda could have been the same person who broke into his car.
4:32 bengelinas:
He offered a description of a man a little taller than him, wearing a green windbreaker and blue jeans, with a Celtic knot tattooed on his neck on his right side.
5:20 bengelinas:
Here is the entire e-mail, as it was presented in court: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/interview/4492805/story.html
5:57 bengelinas:
One last thing I should mention before I tear down for the evening. The jury heard late today an additional line of questioning put to Mark Twitchell's wife Jess, about a conversation she had with him regarding empathy in late Sept. 2008. "The context of the conversation was Mark told me he was unsure if he could feel empathy like other people," Jess Twitchell said.
5:59 bengelinas:
She said she told her then-husband about an episode of Oprah she saw about a woman who mistakenly left her baby in the car and it died. She said as a new mother she felt a great deal of empathy for this woman.
6:00 bengelinas:
6:02 bengelinas:
"I was very upset," Jess Twitchell said. "That obviously was not normal." The idea of counseling was broached. "If he was a person who couldn't feel empathy then we couldn't be together."
6:03 bengelinas:
Court is expected to resume at 10 a.m. tomorrow. In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me: [email protected]
Thursday March 24, 2011 10:11 bengelinas:
Friends of Mark Twitchell are testifying this morning. I'll be writing from the audio feed.
10:14 bengelinas:
Gregory Auch met Mark Twitchell in 2005 after replying to an online ad for a set designer on Twitchell's Star Wars fan film Secrets of the Rebellion.
"We kept in touch. Email, all that. Never really went out for beers or anything like that, but we kept in touch, worked on a couple projects," Auch says. They were more "work associates" than friends.
10:18 bengelinas:
Twitchell asked Auch to borrow a replica gun for House of Cards. The killer was to present the gun to the victim in a bag and state the victim's fingerprints were on this gun. The replica Auch gave Twitchell was plastic and silver -- a BB gun. Auch says he painted the orange tip silver to make it look more realistic for film. The gun was plastic. The magazine that held the BB's was metal.
10:23
Crown prosecutors say this BB gun was found in the garage. It was previously entered as an exhibit.
10:28 bengelinas:
Auch says he was supposed to get the gun back after filming wrapped. House of Cards was supposed to take three days to shoot. Auch says he left a voicemail for Twitchell on October 3, a few days after filming finished. Auch asked in the voicemail when he might get the gun back. Auch says he received no response to the voicemail.
10:29 bengelinas:
He left another message on October 27. Auch got a call back from Twitchell the next day.
10:29 bengelinas:
10:30 bengelinas:
Auch agreed. The gun was worth $250, after all. Auch says the conversation with Twitchell moved on to Twitchell's Halloween plans and costume that year. Auch never received money for the gun. He was contacted by police three days after Twitchell was arrested.
10:32 bengelinas:
Joss Hnatiuk is now on the stand. He's known Twitchell for five or six years. They met on a Star Wars fan message board and was brought in to help on Secrets of the Rebellion.
10:33 bengelinas:
They became friends, would go to movies and out for coffee.
10:34 bengelinas:
Hnatiuk also worked on House of Cards.
10:36 bengelinas:
Hnatiuk says he invested most of his savings in Twitchell's Day Players project, a feature film about the lives of extras that Twitchell was trying to get off the ground.
10:41 bengelinas:
Hnatiuk says Twitchell ordered a drum to be on set, but it didn't arrive in time for the shoot. Twitchell complained that he missed the delivery person twice. "I think it was primarily to be a set piece, but also for garbage," Hnatiuk says.
10:43 bengelinas:
Then there was the fake blood. Hnatiuk says the fake blood didn't make much of a mess.
10:43 bengelinas:
"You don't have a lot to work with on a small budget film so you usually try to minimize the mess," he says. A little of the food dye and corn syrup mixture spilled during the kill scene and around the mixing bucket, but it was: "nothing that couldn't be cleaned up with some paper towels."
10:45 bengelinas:
Hnatiuk went to see Kevin Smith at the Winspear on October 8. They met at Southgate Mall, where Twitchell parked. The friends went to the show together in Hnatiuk's car. When they returned from the show, Twitchell got into his car. Nothing was out of the ordinary, Hnatiuk says.
10:48 bengelinas:
Twitchell told police his car was broken into while he was at Kevin Smith with Hnatiuk, the jury heard Wednesday.
10:50 bengelinas:
Hnatiuk says he talked to Twitchell over the phone on Friday, October 17: "Mark phoned me up to tell me he was at a gas station and had met a guy who said he was moving to the Caribbean with his sugar mama and was selling his stuff off. He asked mark how much money he had in his wallet and he said forty dollars. He sold him a red Mazda 3 for forty dollars."
10:51 bengelinas:
"I said it sounds like one of those deals that's too good to be true," Hnatiuk says. "He said he thought so too." But Twitchell told him he had all the paperwork and the bill of sale.
10:52 bengelinas:
10:54 bengelinas:
Hnatiuk asked why Twitchell wouldn't keep the car and Twitchell told him it was a standard. Twitchell said he didn't know how to drive standard.
10:58 bengelinas:
Twitchell asked Hnatiuk to come and move the car for Twitchell. Twitchell said to meet him at the garage where they filmed House of Cards. Twitchell wanted Hnatiuk to move the car to Twitchell's home in St. Albert, but Hnatiuk had an appointment. They agreed to instead move it to Hnatiuk's parents' place where Hnatiuk lived, about six blocks from the garage.
10:59 bengelinas:
When Hnatiuk arrived at the garage, he met Twitchell. The car was inside the garage. The chair and the table were still there, pushed off to the side. Hnatiuk says it was a red Mazda 3. "It was clean and in good condition, no dents, no damage. It looked to be very new," Hnatiuk says.
11:00 bengelinas:
They had a look at the inside. Hnatiuk looked inside the glove compartment. The owner's manual said it was a 2005. Hnatiuk reversed the car out of the garage and drove it straight to his parents' place near 53 Street and 35 Avenue.
11:00
11:02 bengelinas:
Twitchell asked Hnatiuk for the keys and license plate. Twitchell said he needed these things so he could register the car.
11:07 bengelinas:
Hnatiuk found in the car a paintball mask, a book by Dan Millman called with Peaceful Warrior in the title, a pack of Kleenex, a screwdriver and a small license plate that Hnatiuk assumed was for a motorcycle.
11:08 bengelinas:
He gave the small plate the Twitchell. On Oct 18, Hnatiuk offered to buy the car for $40. Twitchell said he'd think about it.
11:09 bengelinas:
Twitchell called back around 10 p.m. that Saturday. He said the garage had been broken into and he was going to drive down there to talk to the police.
11:10 bengelinas:
11:11 bengelinas:
"Mark was saying he was all stressed out and that he had been at the garage the whole time," Hnatiuk says. "I thought he was joking about the break-in. He said that he was really stressed out. He said that it was weird, that stuff had been moved around, that the key didn't work on the door and police had to unscrew a bolt to get in."
11:13 bengelinas:
Twitchell said the police had questioned him about his time at the garage and a missing person.
11:14 bengelinas:
"I said if the garage had been broken into, it's a good thing we moved the car," Hnatiuk remembers telling Twitchell.
11:14 bengelinas:
Twitchell sounded surprised. He said that he had forgotten about the car.
11:17 bengelinas:
Hnatiuk wondered how Twitchell could forget about the car. Twitchell admitted he "must have just blanked."
11:18 bengelinas:
Twitchell wondered if the car and the missing person could be linked. He asked Hnatiuk if it could be a "set-up" and wondered if his wife and daughter were safe. Twitchell then said he had to go, that he was receiving an incoming call from his wife.
11:18 bengelinas:
(court is now on a short break)
11:43 bengelinas:
Around noon on October 19, Hnatiuk called Twitchell to see if there was any news on whether the car was related or stolen. "If it was stolen I didn't want it on the property," Hnatiuk says.
11:43 bengelinas:
Twitchell said he had just woken up and hadn't called the police to tell them about the car.
11:44 bengelinas:
Hnatiuk said if Twitchell didn't call the police about the car right away, Hnatiuk would call them.
11:45 bengelinas:
A few hours later, Twitchell called back. Twitchell said police believed the car was indeed stolen and they would be by to pick it up.
11:47 bengelinas:
Police showed up at Hnatiuk's in the early morning hours of October 20. He was interviewed by police.
11:50 bengelinas:
Under cross-examination, Hnatiuk says they mixed the fake blood inside the garage near the big garage doors.
11:50 bengelinas:
He says following the House of Cards shoot, there was discussion among the players for the concept to be developed into some kind of ongoing series or feature film.
11:51 bengelinas:
12:03 bengelinas:
Twitchell's lawyer Charles Davison challenged Hnatiuk on the claim that if Twitchell didn't call the police about the car right away, Hnatiuk would. This detail didn't appear in Hnatiuk's 2008 notes, nor did Hnatiuk bring it up in his interview with police. Hnatiuk agreed that the first time he likely remembered this detail was in preparation for Twitchell's trial.
12:15 bengelinas:
Det. Brian Murphy, now in arson, was at the time of Altinger's disappearance a detective in Southwest Division. He met with Twitchell on October 19. Murphy was supposed to pick up a key to the garage from Twitchell. They agreed to meet at a northside 7-11 in order to do this.
12:17 bengelinas:
They ended up talking for nearly an hour at the 7-11. Twitchell says to Murphy that there are some things he should know. He tells Murphy about his car getting broken into at Southgate on Oct 8. He tells Murphy about coming home with his wife on Oct 12 to find their front door unlocked. This was strange, Twitchell told Murphy, because his wife is like Jack Nicholson with her OCD.
12:18 bengelinas:
Then Twitchell tells Murphy about Oct 15. Twitchell said a man approached his car at a gas station near the garage and offered to sell him a car. Twitchell tells Murphy the man knocked on the window, then made a circle motion with his hand, as if to suggest he roll down the window.
12:23 bengelinas:
The man told Twitchell he'd just met a girl who was very wealthy. She was going to take him on a vacation for three months and buy him a new car when they got back. Twitchell told Murphy he bought the car for the money he had in his wallet and arranged to have the man drive the car to Twitchell's garage. When the man left, Twitchell realized the car was "a stick." So, Twitchell told Murphy, he called his friend Joss Hnatiuk and had Hnatiuk drive it to Hnatiuk's place.
12:25 bengelinas:
Twitchell provided Murphy with a detailed description of the car and the man who sold it to him. The man was about 6'2", medium build, black hair, with a green windbreaker, black runners, a white tee and jeans. The man had a tattoo of a Celtic knot and was also named Mark.
12:26 bengelinas:
The description of the car Twitchell gave to Murphy: a red 2005 Mazda.
12:27 bengelinas:
"I told Mark after hearing this story that the other investigators have to know about this," Murphy says. "They're probably going to want you to give a statement." (This would be Twitchell's second statement/interview with police)
12:28 bengelinas:
The investigators back at the station decided they needed to speak with Twitchell right away. They asked Twitchell (through Murphy) to drive his own car to police headquarters.
12:28 bengelinas:
(court is now on a lunch break)
2:09 bengelinas:
Det. Murphy joined Twitchell at police headquarters. Twitchell was asked to write a second statement.
2:11 bengelinas:
Twitchell was then interviewed by homicide detective Bill Clark. It went from shortly after 2 a.m. and went well into 6 a.m., says Murphy, who was monitoring.
