Sarnia homicide trial: Several neighbors recall senior being in fear before fatal fall

Lucille Frayne isn’t sure why her friend Nada Court and Court’s neighbor had a falling out.

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There were only two things Frayne could point to as a potential source of conflict between the fellow Colborne Road basement apartment tenants: a coffee table and a poinsettia.

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The table the neighbor gave Court wasn’t practical as she had significant mobility issues while the plant posed a danger to her cat, so she rejected both, Frayne said. Despite this theory, her late friend never told her exactly what soured the relationship.

But there was one thing of which Frayne was sure: Court was very careful when climbing the basement stairwell to and from her unit and in the approximately six years she lived there she never once fell.

“She was always cautious,” Frayne testified Tuesday in a Sarnia courtroom.

Court’s lifeless body was discovered at the bottom of those stairs on Oct. 25, 2020. She died from significant blunt-force trauma to her head and neck and was found next to a door with cracked glass dividing the basement hallway from the bottom of the staircase.

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Timothy Nahmabin, a 45-year-old Sarnia man who also lived in the apartment at the time, has been on trial since Oct. 10 for manslaughter. An emotional Frayne – she was close friends with Court – testified Tuesday during Day 6 of the trial.

“She meant a lot to me,” she said from the stand shortly before crying.

As for the neighbor, whom Frayne never met, her initial thought was he was trying to be nice by offering her friend the pair of gifts during the fall of 2019. But things changed as the calendar flipped to 2020.

“I know she started to feel more and more uncomfortable with the neighbor,” Frayne said.

It was similar to what a social worker testified Monday Court told her during a meeting a few months before she died.

Melynda Subinski, the apartment building’s superintendent, testified Tuesday Court was more specific with her about her fears that she would get pushed down the stairs.

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“She told me if anything happens to her, he killed her,” Subinski said.

During cross-examination, defense lawyer Ken Marley asked if she was fearful for her safety why the police weren’t called. Subinski said it’s not the landlord’s responsibility.

Earlier Tuesday, Frayne testified her friend confronted the neighbor about three months before she died.

“Just leave me alone,” Frayne recalled Court saying.

Frayne said Court believed the neighbor intentionally left peanuts or candies on the stairs they both shared and also spilled water there. It was similar to the testimony of three other Colborne Road tenants called Tuesday, Matteo Tersigni, Alysha White, and Robert Michaud.

Tersigni, who was friends with both Court and Nahmabin, said he never saw anything left on the stairs, but was aware of a series of petty incidents causing issues between the two.

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Despite being petty, Tersigni testified Court was living in fear over what would happen.

“’He’s going to end up pushing me down the stairs.’ Those were his exact words,” he said.

Tersigni said he eventually had a discussion with Nahmabin about putting an end to the pettiness. Nahmabin didn’t admit to doing anything, but simply said, “OK,” Tersigni recalled

“She’s turning everyone against me,” Nahmabin also said, according to Tersigni.

Tersigni and Frayne also testified about two separate physical confrontations between the two neighbors. Tersigni recalled being told the back door was slammed on Court and Nahmabin nudged her on the stairs one time while Frayne said Court was pushed up against a laundry room doorframe by her neighbor.

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The combined trial and voir dire, being heard by Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia without a jury, continues Wednesday. A voir dire is a hearing where the judge determines what evidence is admissible and can potentially be entered into evidence in the trial.

Nahmabin was initially charged on Oct. 31, 2020, with second-degree murder – multiple Sarnia police officers have testified Nahmabin voluntarily walked up to headquarters that day and confessed to harming his neighbor – but the charge was later reduced to manslaughter. He’s been out on lease since early 2021.

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