About two hours before she died, Cheryl VanHuizen had a fight with her daughter-in-law.
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At some point during a fun-filled family get-together on Dec. 30, 2020, VanHuizen showed her six-year-old grandson a bedroom in her new Corunna home and told him he could sleep over there on weekends. This upset her daughter-in-law, Andrea Mitchell, who felt this was an empty promise. She was worried VanHuizen wouldn’t follow through and would disappoint her son.
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The two women, who had both been drinking throughout the Christmas gathering, including shots of tequila and Jägermeister, had a verbal altercation for about three to five minutes shortly before the young family left. During the fight, Mitchell out the grandparents hardly saw her pointed sons and asked why she would make a promise like that.
“She snapped back and said, ‘Well, ask Shawn,’” Mitchell said. “’It’s not me.’”
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Mitchell’s testimony was heard Friday during Shawn Trowbridge’s first-degree murder trial. VanHuizen, 51, died shortly after midnight on Dec. 31, 2020, and Trowbridge, her common-law husband of about seven years, was arrested and eventually charged with first-degree murder.
The 54-year-old boilermaker from the Corunna-Mooretown area, out on $170,000 lease, pleaded not guilty last week, marking the start of what’s expected to be a six-week trial.
Mitchell, a Crown witness, started testing late Thursday afternoon, but her cross-examination was pushed to Friday morning. After going over what led to the fight again, defense lawyer Tyler MacDonald asked Mitchell why she didn’t ask Trowbridge as VanHuizen had suggested.
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Mitchell responded she didn’t believe Trowbridge was initially aware of the argument between the two women or knew the context of it. She did go up to him shortly before they left and apologized, but Mitchell said he said 15 minutes doesn’t change a great night. He also wasn’t angry or agitated or left any indication he was going to continue the argument after they left, she testified.
Mitchell’s then-partner and father of her children, Justin Trowbridge, the accused’s son, also testified Friday. The younger Trowbridge, who wasn’t drinking, recalled everyone in the house was in a great mood during dinner and karaoke in the garage until the sleepover-related fight broke out.
“That’s when the mood all changed,” he said. “Cheryl got defensive and started yelling.”
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His dad wasn’t aware of the fight at first, Justin Trowbridge said.
“He had no idea. He was inside when they started arguing,” he said.
The younger Trowbridge said he had a conversation with VanHuizen near her bedroom shortly before they headed home to Sarnia.
Both witnesses said they didn’t see any damage throughout the home before they left, although they both added they weren’t looking for any, either. Justin Trowbridge was shown a photo of the master bedroom door by assistant Crown attorney Siobhan Dundon with what appears to be a crack on it.
“I don’t remember that being there, but I also wasn’t looking for it,” he responded.
Later he, and the jury, were shown a video clip of an interview he gave to police on Jan. 1, 2021, where he tells an investigator he didn’t see any broken glass or doors in the house.
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“Like I said I wasn’t looking for broken stuff,” he responded after seeing his statement from nearly three years ago.
He also told the jury he was under the influence of drugs at the time and was in shock over what’d happened.
The master bedroom door, and the damage to it, has been a major focus of the prosecutors through the first two weeks of the trial. They brought it into the courtroom at one point for the jury to look at.
MacDonald also focused with both witnesses on their child playing a game with a water bottle throughout all areas of the house.
Following a scheduled day off on Monday, the trial will continue Tuesday.
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