deadmonton - thomas george svekla - trial - 3
On February 19th, 2008 Thomas George Svekla – who prefers that his fellow inmates call him "Mr. Hockey Bag" – went on trial in an Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench courtroom to face two charges of second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Theresa Merrie Innes and Rachel Liz Quinney.
This page is Part Three of coverage by this site.
- March 10th, 2008
More wiretap evidence heard. - March 11th, 2008
Toxicologist testifies; former cellmate tells of scary story. - March 12th, 2008
Edmonton Sun columnist testifies. - March 13th, 2008
Rachel Quinney's sister takes the stand.
March 10th, 2008
Week Four of the trial of Thomas Svekla trial began with the playing of a silent videotape showing police examining the body of Theresa Innes after it was found in Svekla's hockey bag as it lay in his sister's garage.
What followed was a contrast to the eerie video: the sound of Thomas Svekla's voice filling the courtroom as more wiretap evidence was played.
 |
In a August 24th, 2006 conversation with his sister Susan, Svekla talked about life in the Edmonton Remand Centre.
He told her he was happy and that he didn't have to deal with many of the problems he had outside prison.
Court heard that in December 2005 Svekla told another sister, Sharyn Durocher, that he had done a "bad thing."
In a conversation recorded on September 16th, 2006 Sharyn asks her brother if the bad thing he did had something to do with Theresa Innes' body.
"So is that what you were worried about here in December last year?" Sharyn asked. "You said you did something bad up in High Level, is that what you did?"
Svekla said he was talking about another incident in which he was charged with assault with a weapon.
"And of course you know that kind of crossed my mind about the body. What, you killed her and put it in your trunk?" Sharyn asked.
Svekla later came to believe Sharyn thought he was guilty of murder and had told police about their discussion.
To punish his sister, Svekla called police and told them Sharyn had been the victim of a crime more than two decades before.
In wiretapped conversation with his mother a week later, Svekla said: "It just backfired on her."
"I told the cops and the cops are all over her now," he said. "She went and told the cops that, so that was just my way of getting back at her."
Also in the September 16th conversation with Sharyn, Svekla talked about how Jason Dix sued the RCMP for malicious prosecution after having two murder charges dismissed. "I'm going to get at least a million," he boasted.
On September 20th, 2006 Svekla again spoke with Susan and told her about an RCMP profiler who had come from Ottawa to talk to him.
Svekla referred to the session as being like a scene from The Silence of the Lambs.
 |
"I said you better leave, man, 'cause this isn't a movie and I'm not Hannibal Lecter," Svekla said to Susan, chuckling heartily as he related the story.
"I had a good laugh. I just tell him I got nothing to say and I'm not Hannibal Lecter."
Svekla is also heard complaining about Sharyn and sister Donna Parkinson making statements to Project KARE investigators.
"Well if I get jail time for you guys talking to them, I'll be pissed," he told Susan. "Don't give them any ammunition, eh?"
He also warns his mother, Emily Svekla, during her October 1st, 2006 visit to the Edmonton Remand Centre.
"Don't say a word to them, mom," he said. "They're making me out to be a really bad guy."
"Okay," Emily said.
"Don't talk. If they ask you about a shower curtain just ..." Svekla said, his voice trailing off as the recording became garbled.
In an October 5th, 2006 call to his sister Maryanne, Svekla said he would be like wrongfully-convicted murderer David Milgaard.
"So there's nothing to worry about. I'll be like Milgaard. You know what Milgaard got right? He got ten million dollars," Svekla said.
 |
Milgaard (seen above in March 1993) was found innocent of the 1969 murder of Gail Miller after spending 23 years in jail. For more about the Milgaard case see below.
During the call, Maryanne tells her brother about the hard time she is having dealing with his notoriety. Svekla addresses the matter.
"Like you're having a hard, you're having a hard time with this eh?" Svekla scoffed.
"Well, kinda, yeah," Maryanne said. "'Cause everybody's, everybody's looking as me like kind of different."
"That has nothing to do with you," Svekla said. "It really doesn't. I'm the guy in jail. I'm the guy who's, who's going up on the murder charges, not you Maryanne."
"And you tell your friends, look that's my brother, Tommy. You know, he's an idiot. That's his problem."
The issue of family cooperation with investgators came up, prompting the following remark.
"I'm not working with the police. I told Project KARE to go to hell," Maryanne said.
Svekla then spoke of his other sister who had called police after unzipping the hockey bag that contained the body of Theresa Innes.
"Well, Donna has to live with herself and she has to go to her grave," Svekla said.
"She's nothing but a fucking asshole," Maryanne replied.
"And she's going to her grave, ok?" her brother answered. "She's gonna regret that probably 'til she dies right?"
Also played was a December 16th, 2006 conversation, again with his sister Sharyn.
Svekla said, "I'm a big boy and I can handle it," referring to his time in prison and the charges he was facing.
One sister told Svekla Project KARE investigators had come by asking about tape and wire. Svekla told her they would not find anything.
Court also heard a recording of a conversation between Svekla and a Project KARE investigator.
March 11th, 2008
Forensic testimony was heard from toxicologist Dr. Graham Jones.
Jones said it was possible but unlikely that Rachel Quinney died of a cocaine overdose. He compared the cocaine levels found in the bodies of Quinney and Theresa Innes to those of heavy recreational users.
Jones said the amount of cocaine in the women's bodies were on the low side of levels that have been found in people who have overdosed.
Next came what was expected to be the first of a series of testimonies from civilian witnesses.
In May 2006 Thomas Svekla was in prison in High Level for breaching bail conditions in an unrelated assault case. Serving time with Svekla was Justin Henry Delorme.
 |
Delorme (seen above outside court) took the stand and was asked to tell the court of conversations he had with his cellmate. However, like a few others who have already testified, the Crown witness had memory problems that transcripts from previous police interviews appeared to solve.
Delorme repeatedly insisted that while he recalled talking to Svekla while sharing a cell and riding a court van, he could remember absolutely nothing that was said.
Justice Sterling Sanderman allowed the interview transcripts to be read to Delorme, adding it was "somewhat incomprehensible" that Delorme could have read the transcripts an hour before testifying but still not remember anything.
Sanderman said Delorme's forgetfulness suggested an "unwillingness" to remember, rather than an inability.
The man was asked if he could see Thomas Svekla in the courtroom. Delorme took considerable time peering around the room before looking at the prisoner's box and acknowlegding his former cell mate.
In June 2006 Delorme was taped during an interview with investigators. In the witness box Delorme testified he didn't remember his conversations with Svekla, but agreed he had been truthful in the interview.
As he spoke, Delorme kept his hands deep in his pockets while he mumbled one-word answers, shooting the occasional furtive glance at Svekla.
Delorme told officers about one night in a High Level jail cell when Svekla leaned over to him and asked if he wanted to hear something scary.
"He's like, you want to hear a horror story?" Delorme had told police. "It was like, late at night, and we were just going to bed."
"And he was telling me about how he like killed, he killed a prostitute in Strathcona ... I think that's what it is, Strathcona."
Svekla then told Delorme he brought another girl to the same area who he also planned to kill.
"Yeah, he said that he killed, he killed that girl, and he said he was taking that other girl there to kill her, or something," Delorme told police.
"They were walking through the bush and he was gonna do her in."
However, the second girl ran away after stumbling over Rachel Quinney's body.
Svekla told Delorme he forgot he had put her so close to the same spot.
Delorme testified that he spoke with Svekla after he was charged with Theresa Innes' murder. The pair met in a court hallway and Delorme taunted Svekla, calling him names.
"The only way I'll get convicted of this is if you rat me out," Svekla told Delorme at the time.
The ex-con, who described himself as a drug dealer, also told the court he sold crack to Svekla on occasion.
The reluctant witness then faced cross-examination from defence lawyer Robert Shaigec. Like the Crown, Shaigec had to read transcripts to Delorme to aid his recall.
The defence lawyer noted that police first spoke with Delorme because Svekla had suggested he may have been involved with Innes' death.
In the taped interview, RCMP officers asked Delorme several times if he was responsible for Innes's death. After denying the allegation, Delorme proceeded to tell them about his conversation with Svekla.
Shaigec had Delorme admit he told police later that Svekla said he was just joking. Delorme said he originally figured Svekla's tale as "jail talk" concocted to scare a young inmate sharing their cell.
The defence lawyer suggested Delorme couldn't fully remember what happened one month after speaking to Svekla, let alone years after.
"What was he saying? I can't, I can't really remember. I smoke a lot of weed, and I have kind of a bad memory," Delorme said at one point during the police interview.
The trial also heard from a pair of prison witnesses during a voir dire – a trial within a trial.
Edmonton Institution prison guard Mike Mah testified that he monitored a conversation between Svekla and inmate Jerry Wetherelt in January 2007.
 |
Reading from his own notes on the stand, Mah said Wetherelt asked Svekla, "Did you do it?" referring to reports of Quinney's death published in a newspaper.
Svekla told Wetherelt he had "just moved" and hid Quinney's body, and said the stories about him weren't true, said Mah.
"I dragged her body a couple of times. They know nothing. I dragged her body ... I hid it, I left her," Mah testified Svekla said.
Wetherelt then referred to bitches and Svekla responded with a laugh, "Bitches deserve it," according to Mah.
Wetherelt then took the stand and testified that Svekla told him a woman he was with overdosed on drugs so he put her in a bag and drove to Edmonton.
"He didn't say he killed anyone," Wetherelt said.
Under cross-examination, defence lawyer Robert Shaigec asked Wetherelt why he told police he barely ever talked to Svekla when Mah had testified that he saw the two men speak at length.
Shaigec also presented the court with details of Wetherelt's lengthy criminal record, with convictions numbering in the dozens, and of the admitted desire of the Crown's witness to see Svekla go to jail for a long time.
The voir dire ended and Justice Sterling Sanderman was tasked with deciding whether to accept Mah's and Wetherelt's statements as evidence.
Another inmate who shared prison space with Svekla was Kirby Auger. Auger testified he was one of six men in a High Level jail holding cell when Svekla talked to him.
Auger said Svekla told him he had found a body with one of his friends after they spent the night smoking crack.
"He had a smile on his face," Auger said.
He also testified he overheard Svekla telling another inmate about his past.
"He was saying that's how easy it is to kill a person," Auger said.
Jerry Wetherelt later faced cameras outside court and re-stated parts of his testimony.
 |
"He was smoking crack with them and she died so he wrapped her body in a duffel bag and drove it to Edmonton," Wetherelt said.
Wetherelt also told media of Svekla's plans after he was acquitted.
"Said he was going to sue for millions and give the money to his daughter – or to Rachel Quinney's daughter. 'Cause they tried laying him on it years ago and they couldn't convict him but now they got him."
When an oft seen reporter was attempting to ask Wetherelt if there was anything less than honest in his testimony, the man cut him off.
 |
 |
"100% the truth. 100% the truth. Everything I said was the truth. I got no reason to lie," he said.
Arguments were expected from both lawyers concerning the admissibility of testimony presented during the voir dire.
March 12th, 2008
In January 2005 Thomas Svekla was in drug treatment at the Poundmaker’s Lodge just north of Edmonton. It was there he made contact with then-freelance Edmonton Sun columnist Andrew Hanon who worked in the facility in communications.
Svekla complained of how he was being treated by police to the writer.
 |
Hanon took the stand and told the court about his encounter with Svekla.
"He told me he had discovered Rachel Quinney’s body," Hanon testified.
Svekla told Hanon he had taken a prostitute out to Strathcona County to do some crack and, after a "struggle" in his truck, the prostitute "freaked out," ran into the woods and "apparently stumbled over a body."
Hanon said Svekla also told him he didn’t report the discovery to police right away out of fear.
"He was very calm. He was very forthright," Hanon said. "I had no reason to believe he was lying."
Hanon testified Svekla also told him he had a cocaine problem and he was trying to kick his habit and stay clean to "honour" Quinney’s memory.
"He said if there was something good to come out of her death, it would be his sobriety."
Svekla told Hanon police considered him a person of interest in Quinney's death. This led to Svekla and his family feeling distress and humiliation, and he hoped Hanon would write a story about his case so that he could clear the air.
Hanon said he pitched the story to his editor at the Sun, but Svekla had disappeared before a formal interview could be arranged.
When Svekla was charged with the death of Theresa Innes in May 2006, Hanon wrote a column about his earlier encounter with him. Hanon was then interviewed by RCMP investigators.
Under cross-examination, Hanon admitted he took no notes during his conversation with Svekla. He also acknowledged that Svekla had not given him any details about the struggle or why the prostitute ran from the truck.
Hanon also agreed he told investigaors that Svekla had given him the impression he didn’t have anything to do with the woman freaking out and said he had run after her to calm her down.
"He wanted to come and use the newspaper to clear his name," Hanon told fellow journalists outside court.
 |
"He felt that he had been wrongly treated by the police when he had reported finding Rachel Quinney's body. He wanted to set the record straight that he shouldn't be considered a suspect and that he simply stumbled upon her body."
Hanon explained Svekla's presence at the drug treatment program.
"He said he wanted to get clean because of discovering that body and that he realised he was involved in a really dangerous lifestyle. And that if any good was to come of Rachel Quinney's death it was his sobriety."
The columnist was asked about Svekla's demeanour when they met.
"He was calm. He kept his hands folded on his lap, we made eye contact the whole time ... he looked as earnest as any of you guys here," he said to the reporters present.
Andrew Hanon's original 2006 Edmonton Sun article can be read here.
The trial continued with testimony from business owners who saw Rachel Quinney working the streets along the city's somewhat notorious 118th Avenue.
Derek and Kirsten Dixon operated a dog-grooming business near the corner of 86th Street and 118th Avenue. From their window they saw Rachel grow up – and grow old.
 |
Quinney was about 17 years old when she started working. She started out calling herself Candace, dyeing her hair red, brown and black, sometimes pulling it back into a ponytail before she set out for work.
"She always looked young, but she was starting to look old," Derek testified.
The couple noted Rachel's brief disappearance from the Avenue of Champions, likely due to her second pregnancy, and her return to the stroll a few months before her death in June 2004.
"Over the last six months, she started to look drawn," Derek said. "She started to look like things were catching up with her."
Kirsten Dixon testified that she saw johns visit the corner "at all hours of the day." She regularly saw Quinney getting picked up and dropped off. The woman described noticing her when she was high and when she was coming down.
Sometimes, the working girls look pretty rough, she said.
"You see them ... their hair flying all over the place. When somebody hasn't slept in however many days you can tell they are exhausted. Sometimes they're fidgety," Kirsten told the court.
"Sometimes they look like they are walking on air, because they're in a good place."
The Dixons said they last saw Quinney in the Homemade Steak and Pizza restaurant at 8541 118 Avenue on June 4th, 2004.
Tariq Khan, the owner of the restaurant, testified he believed he last saw Quinney sometime before June 17th when she came in to use the bathroom.
Rachel Quinney, a mother of two, was 19 years old when she died.
March 13th, 2008
Court next heard from Arlene Quinney, Rachel's sister.
Speaking softly, Arlene testified that the last time she saw her sister was at their mother's home in Frog Lake in February 2004.
Rachel had just returned from Edmonton, taking a break from the streets for a couple of weeks to heal from stab wounds and to try to sort out her life.
"She wanted to clean up her life, straighten out, get off the streets," Arlene said.
The last time she spoke to Rachel was over the phone in May 2004, but Arlene couldn't remember a specific date.
As she was giving her testimony, Arlene gave Svekla several hard looks. The man in the prisoner's box showed no emotion.
Arlene told the court Rachel was one of six girls and one boy in the family.
The man who owned the land on which her body was found also took the stand.
John Brown said the land, near Range Road 224 and Township Road 540, was a well known Lover's Lane and a popular place to dump garbage.
 |
"You can park in there and almost be completely obscured," Brown said of the area bordered by stands of trees.
"We've seen a lot of young guys courting girls in that area. They're doing promiscuous things because they think they can't be seen."
The trial continued March 19th, 2008.
back to menu | return to part one | return to part two
return to main Svekla trial page | return to main Svekla page
In 1969, David Milgaard and two friends were travelling through Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at about the same time police found the dead body of 20-year-old nursing student Gail Miller in a snowbank.
On evidence given by his friends (under pressure from police) and a man later committed to psychiatric care, Milgaard was convicted and sentenced to life in prison exactly a year after Miller's murder. Milgaard appealed his conviction a year later but his case was denied.
In 1988 Milgaard's second formal appeal began but bureaucratic delays ensued. In 1997 a British DNA laboratory exonerated Milgaard, finding evidence instead against Larry Fisher who was later convicted of Miller's rape and murder.
In 2003 the Saskatchewan government initiated a Royal Commission Inquiry looking into the wrongful conviction of David Milgaard.
Milgaard's case was the subject of the 1992 documentary The David Milgaard Story and the 1999 docudrama Milgaard. It also became the focus of the 1992 song "Wheat Kings" by The Tragically Hip, a popular Canadian rock group.
In the song the line "And a late-breaking story on the CBC ..." refers to Milgaard's first post-prison interview with former CBC reporter Byron Christopher.
For more about the Milgaard case, visit Wikipedia. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation web site also features an in depth look at his case along with extensive archival materials.
 |
David Milgaard is currently living happily in Western Canada with his new family, raising a two-year-old son.
On April 30th, 2008 he was given the gift of a newborn daughter.
movies | television | radio | web watch | final credits | edmonton | about this site | site map | contact us
The Last Link on the Left. Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. Stuart P. Bayens. All rights reserved.
This page updated
23:41 2008-04-30.