Witnesses recall bloody scene

(CNS): The first witnesses called to give evidence in the trial of Jose Carillo-Perez (left) for the murder of Martin Gareau described a bloody and shocking scene when they found their cousin’s body lying in pool of blood in his Beach Bay home. The Crown counsel Trevor Ward opened the prosecution’s case explaining that there were no eye witnesses to the “gruesome” and “violent” crime but fingerprints, a foot impression and circumstantial evidence which would, when taken together, point to the defendant as the murderer. (Photo courtesy of News 27).

The witness testimony began on Wednesday morning, following the judge’s decision not to exclude the fingerprint expert witness, despite defence counsel’s lengthy submissions.

The first witness to testify was Gareau’s cousin and employer Gilles Langlois, who explained how Gareau was first missed on the Sunday before his body was found on Tuesday 20 May. Langlois said he was due to come to a BBQ celebration to mark a number of family members’ birthdays around the same time, including that of Gareau. Langlois told the court how he rang him several times on the Sunday evening to see where he was but Gareau did not answer. He then tried again on the Monday, which was a public holiday, but still got no reply. Langlois explained how very concerned he became when Gareau didn’t show up for work on the Tuesday as he was usually very dependable.

Langlois said he called his brother, who lives close to Gareau, and asked him to visit the house to see if he could find him and then got in his own truck and headed out toward Beach Bay. He told the court how, as he was driving there, his brother Guy had called him back a few minutes later. “He said, you better get over here quick there is blood everywhere.”

Langlois said after that call he hung up and called 911. Arriving at Gareau’s house, Langlois said he was followed by the emergency services and a police car. Then he explained that he, his brother and the one police officer who had arrived went into the residence, which was a one-bed apartment above a garage area. He described a very bloody scene with blood on the floor, walls and stairway. Langlois said he began to climb the stairs towards the living area above the garage when he caught sight of his cousin’s body in a pool of blood on the garage floor by his car. He told the court how shocking and distressing the discovery was to both himself and his brother.

Guy Langlois, Gilles’ brother and the second witness, described how he had arrived at Gareau’s house first and had found the door open, which he said was unusual as Gareau always locked his door. He explained how he taken one step inside and seen the blood and a bottle of rum at the bottom of the stairs and stepped back outside as he knew then that something horrible must have happened. Guy Langlois said he waited for his brother to arrive and confirmed how the two of them and the police officer entered the bloody scene and found Gareau’s body covered in blood, lying in a pool of dried blood.

The police officer, Bill McLaughlin, also confirmed the evidence given by the Langlois brothers and told the court how his first reaction was that Gareau had been shot in the head because of the amount of blood around the head of the body when he approached it.

During cross examination of Gareau’s cousins by defence counsel Anthony Akiwumi, the witnesses both described Gareau as a friendly, jovial and affable person. They said he had come to Canada in the wake of a long drawn out divorce and developed a number of friendships with people and close relationships with women. They confirmed that before his death he was “courting” or pursuing a woman by the name of Maria from the Dominican Republic who worked at Singh’s Roti shop — a place where Gareau and his cousins and friends would regularly socialise for happy hour on Fridays. Both brothers, when asked by defence counsel, denied having any knowledge about Maria having another boyfriend.

Guy Langlois also revealed that he learned after his cousin’s death that Gareau knew the defendant and that Langlois had in fact seen Perez sitting with Gareau in a group of people on the Friday evening before he was murdered.

Guy Langlois also confirmed that, during the police investigation, both he and his brothers had given samples for DNA and had been fingerprinted, but none of them were asked to provide a foot impression. He also confirmed that when he and Gilles as well as the police officer had first walked through the scene none of them were wearing protective clothing.