Sarnia-area man tested in own defense at first-degree murder trial

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic sexual details that may be upsetting to some readers.

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The first question Shawn Trowbridge was asked Wednesday as he began testing at his own first-degree murder trial was if he was trying to kill Cheryl VanHuizen the night she died nearly three years ago.

“No, I was not,” he responded to his own lawyer, Tyler MacDonald, in front of the 13-person jury.

In reply to a series of follow-up questions, Trowbridge also denied trying to hurt his common-law partner of about eight years, physically attacking her, or having an argument with her in the hours before she was found dead in their Corunna home shortly after midnight on Dec. 31, 2020.

He did, however, admit to sexual activity that included chocking. VanHuizen, 51, was the one who initiated it, Trowbridge said.

“She asked me to sexually choke her,” he testified.

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VanHuizen’s cause of death was external neck compressions, according to the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy three years ago and who testified earlier in the trial. The professional cleaner, server and mother of two also had several blunt-force injuries on her face, neck, torso and extremities, and had anal injuries, the pathologist added.

Trowbridge, a 54-year-old boilermaker with ties to Sarnia, Corunna and Mooretown, eventually was charged with first-degree murder. Hey pleaded not guilty on Nov. 14, cueing what initially was expected to be a six-week trial.

It continued Wednesday with MacDonald outlining to the jury the evidence his client was going to give during an opening statement from the defense. The Crown concluded its case Friday and the jury was excused Monday and Tuesday.

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MacDonald told them they’d heard about Trowbridge and VanHuizen hanging out together that night after their guests left – they’d hosted Trowbridge’s children and grandchildren for a family Christmas party – and falling down drunk on the way to the bedroom.

“Sort of par for the course for them,” he said.

MacDonald warned the jury his client may appear a little awkward on the stand as he describes intimate details of what happened that night as well as earlier in their relationship.

“But he’s got really no choice to give you all the details he can,” his lawyer said.

After being called to the stand, Trowbridge, wearing a beige cardigan, told the jury he and VanHuizen were watching TV one night about four years prior to her death when she suddenly suggested they were trying sexual chocking.

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“I didn’t like it. It scared me. It didn’t interest me,” Trowbridge said. “Somebody could possibly get hurt.”

Despite his apprehensions, Trowbridge said VanHuizen told him how to do it – squeezing from the sides of the neck, not the front – and they agreed to a safety plan where she would tap his forearm to have him stop. When they first attempted the act, he stopped after her face turned red, but VanHuizen became upset with him for leaving early so he later continued, he said.

They did this activity about 15 times during the next four years. On two occasions she didn’t tap his arm and he didn’t stop. Instead, her arm fell down and she briefly passed out for a couple of seconds, he recalled.

After regaining consciousness, Trowbridge said VanHuizen told him she enjoyed it, but he was mad.

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“If you don’t tap I’m never doing this again,” he recalled telling her.

Several members of the gallery became upset listening to Trowbridge’s testimony. There was a commotion at the back of the courtroom as a person collapsed, prompting an unexpected delay in the trial as paramedics were called to take the person out on a stretcher.

Trowbridge continued testing, after the abrupt adjournment, about the family Christmas get-together and the fight between VanHuizen and his son’s girlfriend, an event about which several previous witnesses have testified.

Trowbridge said he told his children the fight didn’t ruin an otherwise fun night and he and VanHuizen hung out together in the garage after they all left. Then he recalled they fell while kissing and walking between the garage and the master bedroom. But they started laughing about it as falling was a frequent occurrence for them.

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At the direction of his lawyer, Trowbridge gave a graphic play-by-play of their sexual activities in the bedroom, which included chocking. This led up to the moment her body collapsed.

“I look at her and she’s not, she’s unconscious. She’s not moving,” he said. “She just went limp.”

He remembered trying to shake her awake and noticing it didn’t appear she was breathing. He frantically tried to find one of their phones in the bedroom to call 911 but couldn’t, so he went to the garage and dumped out a lunchbox and heard a smash before finally seeing a phone nearby and calling 911.

That call, which was played for the jury early in the trial, was played again Wednesday with Trowbridge explaining to the jury what he was thinking and doing. He also explained his perspective from police videos at the scene and his reaction to the news VanHuizen had died.

“I wished we never got introduced to this shocking sex,” he said.

Trowbridge, out on $170,000 lease, is expected to still be on the stand when the trial continues Thursday.

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@ObserverTerry

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