For the third straight day, a Sarnia-area man continued testing at his own first-degree murder trial.
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But it was brief as Shawn Trowbridge only answered a handful of questions from defense lawyer Tyler MacDonald during re-examination. Trowbridge gave further evidence on a fall he and Cheryl VanHuizen, his common-law partner of about eight years, had in a hallway outside the master bedroom in their Corunna home just before she died nearly three years ago. He said he didn’t mention the fall while talking to police as paramedics tried to save her life because he thought it was of little consequence at the time.
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In response to another question from MacDonald, Trowbridge said he didn’t check VanHuizen for any pinpoint bleeding underneath her eyelids or inside her mouth – injuries a forensic pathologist found during her autopsy – after they participated in sexual chocking about 15 times during a four- year period before the night she died.
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VanHuizen’s cause of death was external neck compressions, according to the forensic pathologist. She also had blunt-force injuries to her head, neck, torso and arms.
Additionally, Trowbridge explained why he was able to remember everything they did together sexually in the moments before she went unconscious around midnight on Dec. 31, 2020, his attention was directly on her at the time, he said.
“It’s also been something I’ve gone over in my head every day since to try and figure out what happened,” he said.
Trowbridge, a 54-year-old boilermaker from Sarnia and the Corunna-Mooretown area, previously expressed they didn’t do anything differently during that final encounter, where she suddenly collapsed and he fell forward.
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