The longtime girlfriend of Noah Brown, a Sarnia man on trial for second-degree murder, continued testing Monday about a discussion they had on Jan. 26, 2021 – the day he showed up to her apartment with a backpack full of expensive camera equipment and the day Allen Schairer died.
The longtime girlfriend of Noah Brown, a Sarnia man on trial for second-degree murder, continued testing Monday about a discussion they had on Jan. 26, 2021 – the day he showed up to her apartment with a backpack full of expensive camera equipment and the day Allen Schairer died.
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Jessica Hales previously testified Brown wasn’t himself and went white and almost passed out after hearing a friend of hers ask on a video chat if she’d heard about the murder on Devine Street. After seeing his reaction while standing in her bedroom sometime after 9 pm that Tuesday, Hales ended the call and asked him what had happened.
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“That’s where he got the camera from and that him and Josh broke into this guy’s home,” she recalled him saying. “He was in the basement and Josh stabbed the guy.”
Brown, 31, and Joshua Tomlinson, 38, both pleaded not guilty last week to second-degree murder and breaking and entering, kicking off what’s expected to be a five-week trial. The Crown has alleged Schairer, 62, was found stabbed to death in the bathtub of his Devine Street home.
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But before Hales testified about that conversation, Superior Court Justice Michael McArthur explained to the 14-person jury special rules apply when there’s more than one accused person: anything one of them may have said to a witness can’t be used to reach a verdict on the other person. They also have to decide if they believed the person actually made the statement, he added.
As Hales continued testing about that night three-plus years ago, she also recalled Brown denied being on drugs despite being at the height of his addiction and appearing very sweaty. She also noticed he had a cellphone that wasn’t his – she’d kicked him out of the apartment a few months earlier and he didn’t have a phone amid being homeless – and new clothes.
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Brown also told her he’d gotten rid of a knife and assured her his fingerprints wouldn’t be on it, she testified.
During cross-examination with Tomlinson’s lawyer, Terry Brandon, Hales agreed she was concerned about the fingerprints as she still loved him. She also agreed she knew the camera equipment was stolen and admitted she continued talking to Brown and having him over even after he was ordered by police not to amid the homicide investigation.
Brown’s lawyer, Michael Moon, focused on her relationship with Brown and how he was a good father when he wasn’t on drugs, then shifted to her going to police the next day to tell them what she’d heard. Moon also asked a question about her looking up Tomlinson on Facebook that night – she said she did – and if Brown had mentioned Tomlinson came by with him earlier that day to drop the camera off. She said he didn’t mention that.
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It’s unclear if Hales will still be on the stand when the trial continues Tuesday. OPP Det.-Const. Rob Carruthers, who did a welfare check at Schairer’s house three years ago, and Bryan Schairer, the deceased’s brother, have also testified so far.
Schairer was discovered by police around 1:30 pm on Jan. 26, 2021, in his Devine Street home during a welfare check after they found his 2012 Hyundai Elantra abandoned on the outskirts of Sarnia. The avid photographer’s body was found in his bathtub with multiple stab wounds, including to both sides of his chest and his chin, the prosecutor told the jury during his opening statement.
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