deadmonton - the trial of michael white - november 15th, 2006
Liana White, 29, was stabbed to death July 12th, 2005.
Michael White, then 28, was charged with second-degree murder and offering an indignity to a dead body.
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The trial continued with testimony from a police forensics officer who said there were no signs of a struggle inside or outside Liana White's abandoned Ford Explorer when it was examined in the parking lot of a sports recreation field.
Det. John Normand, who performed the initial check of the White's residence, also said there were no signs of a struggle inside the home. He described it as neat and tidy. At the time of the murder, Normand was a patrol sergeant.
It also came out during testimony that Michael White was under surveillance up to and including the time his wife's body was discovered.
Jurors were then shown their second videotape of the trial as the Crown re-focused its attention on the activities of Michael White.
What was seen on the tape was as compelling as it was inconclusive.
It was likely no other crime footage in recent memory had been this collectively and closely scrutinised since the Zapruder film.
Sgt. Brian Andersen, a video forensics expert, told the court how police had seized footage taken by a surveillance camera mounted on the roof of Richard's Pub, located a few blocks south and east of White's home and on a direct route to where Liana's SUV was found.
The pub had installed cameras several years earlier in an effort to curb vandalism. One camera's field of view captured a curving portion of 161 Avenue near 123 A Street.
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Andersen testified the tape was placed into the pub's videocassette recorder at 2:30 a.m.
The officer then presented the low-resolution black-and-white tape, lasting barely seconds over two segments, that showed an SUV driving southeast along 161 Avenue at 4:59 a.m. on July 12th, 2005.
About eleven-and-a-half minutes after the vehicle passed by, the video showed a man slowly jogging in the opposite direction – northwest and back in the direction of the White residence.
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Police collected the tape later that morning hoping it would offer clues to what was considered Liana White's then-unexplained disappearance.
It was probable the tape caused police to focus on Michael White and place him under close watch.
While the video was digitised in an effort to enhance it, images from the outdoor cameras recorded on the low-end recorder could only yield so much visual information.
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A frame-by-frame analysis was performed. While the back of a man's bald head was visible, his face was not.
On July 21st, 2005 police re-enacted events seen in the footage using the pub's cameras recording Liana White's Ford Explorer being driven by an officer. Andersen presented graphics indicating similarities between the recordings.
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The first graphic pointed out consistencies found: double roof rack, dark rear body pillar, one large light body pillar, the tonal value of the paint and the SUV's running boards. The lower image was noted for its absence of a light or white clothed driver.
The second graphic compared the July 12th video image with a photograph of Liana's SUV as it was found on the parking lot of the baseball field several hours later.
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Andersen also showed a comparison between the man seen running away and the driver of the SUV.
During cross-examination, White's lawyer asked why no effort was made to re-enact somebody else walking.
Michael White was in custody at the time and his measurements (six-foot three-inches and 240 pounds) were readily available for comparison.
Police would only say that because the person was moving it would have been too difficult to determine the size of the man.
Less than an hour after the Richard's Pub footage was recorded, Liana's Ford Explorer was first spotted by a passerby.
An agreed statement of facts was also entered into evidence covering the four-day period that police had Michael White under surveillance.
Of significance was that White admitted going into a field just north of his residence to recover two garbage bags.
The jury was also given a summary of distances and driving times between locations mentioned so far in the trial.
- White home to body recovery site: 6.3 kilometres, six minutes to drive
- Body site to field where garbage bags were picked up: 3.9 km, four minutes
- Garbage bag field to where SUV abandoned: 3 km, five minutes
- Round trip (from White's home, past garbage field, to body recovery site, to baseball diamond parking lot): 13 km, sixteen minutes
- Walking time from the baseball diamond parking lot to the White home: 20 minutes
The trial continued November 16th, 2006
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