Lawyers are expected to deliver their closing arguments Thursday in a marathon joint Sarnia murder trial after the last piece of evidence was entered Wednesday.
Lawyers are expected to deliver their closing arguments Thursday in a marathon joint Sarnia murder trial after the last piece of evidence was entered Wednesday.
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The jury heard Joshua Tomlinson, accused of second-degree murder along with Noah Brown in the stabbing death of Sarnia senior Allen Schairer, wanted to call four people to testify in his defense. Instead, an admission was made on behalf of both defendants and the Crown: Tomlinson wasn’t aggressive around those four potential witnesses, didn’t influence them not to testify, and didn’t discuss or admit to committing murder around them.
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A retired Sarnia police detective Tomlinson’s lawyer, Terry Brandon, initially wanted to have testify was also canceled, marking the end of their defense evidence.
“That is the evidence to be called at trial on behalf of Mr. Tomlinson,” Brandon told the jury and Superior Court Justice Michael McArthur.
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Tomlinson testified in his own defense, telling the jury he didn’t kill Schairer and was never in his Devine Street home. He walked from his Kathleen Avenue home to Exmouth Street and back during the early-morning hours of Jan. 26, 2021, scoping out potential businesses to break into before returning home empty-handed. Brown’s lawyer, Michael Moon, spent four days grilling him under cross-examination and the Crown also tried to poke holes in his story.
Brown chose not to testify, Moon confirmed to the jury Wednesday.
“We are happy to rely on the trial record as is,” he said.
Defendants are not required to call any evidence. The onus is on the Crown to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
Prosecutor David Rows, who initially called more than a dozen witnesses, opted not to call any more.
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“The Crown is not calling any reply evidence,” he confirmed to the judge and jury.
McArthur told the jury they will start hearing the lawyers’ closing arguments Thursday and excused them for the rest of the day. In the meantime, he’ll have a conference with the lawyers about the charge he’ll be giving them before they deliberate, the judge told them.
Schairer, a 62-year-old retiree and photographer who lived alone on Devine Street near Tecumseh Park, was discovered in his bathtub stabbed to death on Jan. 26, 2021, after police found his car abandoned on city outskirts.
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