Sarnia murder defendant denies being in house, knowing about stabbing

Prior to calling her client to the stand Tuesday, Joshua Tomlinson’s lawyer gave the jury in his joint murder trial a preview of what she expected him to say.

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“You will hear a compete denial of any attendance at the home of Mr. Schairer, nor any knowledge of a break and enter at that particular residence, let alone a stabbing,” Terry Brandon told them.

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Tomlinson, 38, and Noah Brown, 31, have both pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and breaking and entering the death of Allen Schairer, a 62-year-old retiree and photographer who lived alone on Devine Street near Tecumseh Park. He was discovered in his bathtub stabbed to death on Jan. 26, 2021, after police found his car abandoned on city outskirts, the trial has heard.

Following a month of evidence from more than a dozen witnesses, the Crown concluded its case Monday. As Tomlinson took the stand Tuesday wearing a blue dress shirt, Brandon had him give the jury a glimpse into his personal background, including his early foray into drugs around age 18, before delving into his extensive criminal record.

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The jury previously learned he has a six-page record with more than 80 convictions and is also facing a second, separate murder charge that’s still before the courts.

Brandon had him review a series of break-ins that he pleaded guilty from 2004-19, many linked to Sarnia businesses. Some of the incidents she referenced were previously reported by The Observer, including when he was sentenced to 14 months in jail in 2015 and when he got another two years behind bars in 2016 despite leaving empty handed from several local businesses.

After receiving another two years for disguise with intent in 2019, Tomlinson was released from the Central North Correctional Center in Penetanguishene in 2021 and returned to Sarnia, he told the jury. He stayed at two different friends’ houses and briefly got a job with a local moving company before moving in with Surie Landry-Caudle, his girlfriend at the time.

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She previously said about Tomlinson coming home late on Jan. 26, 2021, with new clothes and a nasty cut on his left hand.

Despite getting counseling in jail and being on probation with a nightly curfew, Tomlinson descended back into his old life of drugs and crime while living with Landry-Caudle, mainly scoping out local businesses for chances to break in and steal cash or things that could be sold, he said. That’s what he was doing when he left home around 10:30 pm to 11 pm on Jan. 25, 2021, wearing the Landry-Caudle jeans later turned over to police, he said.

He walked from their Kathleen Avenue home to Exmouth Street and looked for any businesses that presented themselves as easy targets, but returned home without attempting any break-ins, he said. He was back on Kathleen Avenue when a car pulled up and the driver, who was wearing a face mask, hollered his name.

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It was Brown, a friend, who asked for help with some stolen stuff, Tomlinson testified. He declined.

“I was tired, I was cold and wet, I wanted to go home,” he said, recalling he was wearing his thin shoes from his time in jail in the cold January.

But Brown got out, pulled something from his jacket, stepped forward and swung at him, he continued. Tomlinson said he put his hands up – he demonstrated the action for the jury – and that’s when he felt a stinging sensation in his hand.

“I looked at it, it was cut and it was bleeding,” he said. “It was bleeding all over the ground.”

Tomlinson said he was terrified and got in the car after Brown told him he wouldn’t take no for an answer. They later drove to the Kathleen Avenue home of Sheena Bates, a woman who previously testified about learning the car in which she was riding that night had been stolen and a person had been stabbed.

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At that time, Tomlinson said he had no idea someone had been stabbed or murdered. He never saw the knife introduced as the murder weapon in the case, Tomlinson told Brandon. He and Brown both brought the stolen property into Bates’ home, but Brown was really clinging to camera equipment, he said.

Later that night, he followed Brown in Bates’ boyfriend’s car to Aamjiwnaang First Nation, although he didn’t know that’s where they were headed, Tomlinson said. The car Brown was driving came to an abrupt stop and Bates got out and ran toward their car.

That’s when she told them about Brown saying he stabbed someone.

“At that moment, I was really shocked, really, almost frozen there for a few seconds,” Tomlinson testified.

After returning to the abandoned car a second time to wipe down Bates’ fingerprints, he went to a different friend’s house to do more drugs and he never saw them, or Brown, again.

“I was just done with that situation,” he said.

Late Tuesday afternoon, he testified about Jan. 27, 2021, the day he was arrested, including a trip to cash his disability check.

He’ll likely still be on the stand when the trial continues Wednesday.

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@ObserverTerry

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