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On February 19th, 2008 Thomas George Svekla 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 Five of coverage by this site.

March 31st, 2008
Former co-workers testify.
April 1st, 2008
Testimony heard from former landlord and people who saw Svekla and Theresa Innes together.
April 2nd, 2008
Witness who saw Svekla with Rachel Quinney takes the stand and jailhouse letters are introduced.
April 3rd, 2008
Innes' drug dealer takes the stand.

March 31st, 2008

Week Seven of the Thomas Svekla double-murder trial began with testimony from some of his former co-workers at the Fountain Tire outlet in High Level.

Gordon Janke testified he and Svekla were having coffee after Christmas 2005 inside the tire shop.

Svekla looked troubled at the time, Janke said. "He looked sad. It looked like there was something on his mind. I asked him what was wrong."

Svekla then made a startling remark.

"He told me he had a dark past and he had killed somebody before."

Janke, wearing a denim Fountain Tire jacket with his name written on the sleeve, said that the confession was upsetting.

"It freaked me out a little bit but I never said anything about it."

Janke testified Svekla seemed to change after making the statement.

"It was like he got it off his chest. He seemed relieved afterwards."

Court also heard from Janke that Svekla always talked about Theresa Goodwin, who cooked and cleaned for him, and how he wanted her as a girlfriend. It was earlier established that Goodwin was a named used by Theresa Innes.

"Just about every day he would mention something about her," he said.

Janke, seen above outside court, said he never met Theresa but said his wife saw her at the soup kitchen she worked at in High Level.

The co-worker also said Svekla's overall mood also got worse after the unusual remark. "He wouldn't joke around. He looked more uneasy with himself."

Under cross examination from defence lawyer Robert Shaigec, Janke admitted that he wasn't fond of Svekla's lifestyle and that the two were not close friends.

"In fact, you and Mr. Svekla had problems," the lawyer suggested.

Janke admitted that after Svekla sometimes threw wrenches at him to keep him from whistling while he worked, he would continue to whistle just to irritate Svekla.

"He would say things to you and later he would be laughing about those things," Shaigec said.

Svekla's lawyer also suggested his client was prone to exaggeration. "He was the type of guy that you didn't know when to take him seriously. A joker and a big talker – that's Tom Svekla in your mind," he proposed.

Janke agreed. "The more I knew him the less I liked him," he said.

Thomas Upshall, another Fountain Tire employee, testified that Svekla had another older girlfriend that he referred to as "Sugar Mama."

Philip Gerbrandt, who also worked with Svekla, testified the man once bolted from the shop when RCMP officers came around.

"He just went running out the back door," Gerbrandt said, although he could not remember precisely when that had happened.

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April 1st, 2008

Thomas Svekla's former landlord took the stand and told the court he saw proof of the accused man's violent lifestyle.

Jozef Lis testified Svekla rented Suite 2 in the Dutch Building. Across the hall, in Suite 1, lived Lis and his wife Elzbieta.

In late 2005 Svekla called Lis into the suite and asked him to provide an estimate for damage done to a wall.

Svekla told him there had been a woman in the apartment and they had had a disagreement. The estimate was needed so that Svekla could take it to police and have the woman pay.

According to Lis, the wall had been punched right through. It was later repaired.

Court heard that afterwards a man was stabbed in the apartment, resulting in Svekla's eviction in February 2006.

When the Crown asked Lis if he saw anything else in the suite, the defence objected saying the witness was expected to describe blood.

In an earlier, un-related and separate trial, the Crown asserted blood found in the suite once rented by Thomas Svekla was the result of an assault. Charges in that case were stayed after police lost key evidence.

The landlord returned to the stand after Justice Sterling Sanderman heard from Crown prosecutor Karl Wilberg that police never connected what appeared to be blood to a specific person.

Lis also testified he believed he once saw Theresa Innes waiting at Svekla's door. He admitted that he just saw the side of her head but still managed to identify her as Innes in a police photo lineup.

Once when Lis and his wife were inside Svekla's suite they saw a stain that looked like dirt on his bedroom carpet. Court heard that what looked like blood was found on door handles, on the bathtub and in the kitchen.

Also noticed was a freezer in Svekla's bedroom.

"I thought, what does he need a freezer for when he is low on money," Elzbieta Lis testified.

Earlier testimony from a medical examiner indicated it was possible the body of Theresa Innes had been frozen.

Also taking the stand was a woman who met Thomas Svekla in a drug and alcohol treatment center in High Level. She testified that she saw Svekla and Theresa Innes together on several occasions.

Tracy Bolton, seen above outside court, said she got to know Svekla well enough that they shared a place together for a few nights. She referred to the man as a "friend."

Bolton also drove cab in the town and gave Thresa Innes a ride as many as eight times. Innes told Bolton that she worked as a prostitute, earning money to support her drug habit.

On one occasion Bolton picked up Svekla and Innes at a house where they had just scored some crack cocaine.

"Theresa and Tom had gone in on some drugs and they were going back to his place to smoke," Bolton testified.

Another time Bolton gave a ride to the pair after they had picked up a six-pack of beer. Svekla said they were looking for a third person to pitch in and help buy some drugs.

When Bolton once tried to visit Svekla, he wouldn't let her in because Innes was there. "I asked if they were boyfriend and girlfriend. He said, 'No. She's just a fuck buddy,' " Bolton recalled.

The woman said she last saw Innes around Halloween of 2005.

Svekla had maintained in interviews with police he only knew of Theresa Innes but had never met her.

During cross examination, Bolton erupted on the stand after accusations she was a recovering crack addict who was trying to make Thomas Svekla look bad.

Conflicted, Bolton shouted: "He is a dangerous man ... and I know him. I consider him a friend."

She also called him "a creep," and said he had beaten her up on more than one occasion.

Bolton also accused lawyer Robert Shaigec of trying to confuse her.

Shaigec repeatedly questioned Bolton about the accuracy of her testimony, bringing to light that she had broken her glasses during a fight with her husband in August 2005.

The lawyer suggested Bolton was "blind" without them and that it was several months before she got a new pair.

Bolton admitted her vision was severely impaired even though she still drove a taxi. She insisted she could still tell who people were by their shapes and the way they walked.

Innes walked with a distinct limp, Bolton said, while Svekla demonstrated noticeable body language.

Referring to statements she earlier made to police, Shaigec pointed out Bolton told them that she had once seen someone named Quinney at Svekla's High Level apartment some time in the summer of 2005. Rachel Quinney's dead body was found in June 2004 east of Sherwood Park.

Explaining her claim on the stand, Bolton said she later learned the woman was Rachel Quinney's younger cousin, the two bearing a striking resemblance.

"It's not my fault that her and her cousin have the exact same birthmark," Bolton barked.

The defence's questioning ended abruptly when Bolton warned the lawyer to change his attitude.

Bolton then left the witness stand and headed for the courtroom doors, stopped only by a court sheriff and the words of Court of Queen's Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman who threatened to send her to jail if she left.

"That works. I won't have to answer any more of Mr. Attitude's questions," Bolton yelled back.

After a short recess, the woman agreed to return to the stand to complete her testimony.

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April 2nd, 2008

A witness who thought he saw Thomas Svekla together with Rachel Quinney took the stand.

Randy Munian and his fiancee moved into a south Edmonton townhouse in the Lakewood area with Svekla in February 2004.

The man told court that late one night about a month later Svekla knocked on his bedroom door and asked if he had any CDs he and a woman could listen to.

Going down to the kitchen, Munian noticed a native woman who looked much older than her years. She looked 28, he said, but guessed she was 22.

"She looked like she had been up for a few days, her cheeks were sunken," Munian testified. "She looked like she was pretty at one time."

The woman introduced herself. "Some guys call me Sweetie Pie. But you're cute. You can call me Rachel," Munian recounted in a 2006 police interview.

Munian said Rachel told him her favourite artist was 50 Cent. He then lent her the rapper's CD titled Get Rich or Die Trying.

By the next morning there was no trace of Svekla, the 19-year-old girl or the CD.

When Randy later challenged Svekla over the missing CD, he replied that "Rachel wouldn't do something like that. Quinney's not like that."

Three months later Svekla told police he had stumbled over Quinney's body east of Edmonton. Svekla said during interviews with investigators that he only had a passing acquaintance with Rachel Quinney.

Munian said he never saw Quinney again, and Svekla continued to bring home many different girls and often at odd hours.

Defence lawyer Rob Shaigec had Munian admit he never identified Quinney by name when he first spoke with police and later told investigators he had met a girl named Rachel Quinn.

"You say Quinn every single time, and the (interview) transcriber wrote Quinney," said Shaigec.

Munian also acknowledged he couldn't positively identify Quinney in a photo lineup. The man conceded he was trying to co-operate with police and had only guessed at which girl might have been Quinney.

"I believe it's the same Rachel Quinn I met at the Lakewood House who stole my CDs," he told the court.

The woman who Thomas Svekla referred to as "Sugar Mama" was next on the witness stand.

And as 53-year-old Teri Koch walked into the courtroom the accused man welcomed the woman by smiling at her brightly. It was the only positive emotion that Svekla had shown so far in the trial.

Koch first met Svekla through her job at a High Level dental clinic in 2005.

The woman testified she took care of everything for Svekla, from buying him clothes to ferrying him around town in her car. She said the two always had a platonic relationship.

She said the Svekla would often tell her "I love you ... I'm with my Sugar Mama. I get everything."

Koch told the court of two separate conversations with Svekla that both featured dead women as their theme.

Once the pair were driving through a campsite and passed a marshy area. Jokingly, Koch said: "This looks like the perfect place where you could kill a person and stick a body in the swamp."

Svekla replied he once found the body of a girl in the grass.

"I said: 'You're probably that guy who killed those prostitutes,' " Koch testified. "He said: 'What would you do if I was?' "

Svekla then asked her what she would do if he was behind the deaths.

"Not much I could do," she answered. "I'm not a prostitute, so I'd be safe I guess."

On a different occasion, two days before he supposedly transported Innes' body from High Level to Fort Saskatchewan, Svekla asked her "How far would you be willing to go for our friendship?"

Koch replied, "Not far, why? Let me guess. You killed your girlfriend and you want me to help you get rid of the body?"

Svekla then asked her, "If I told you I killed my girlfriend, would you tell the cops?"

Koch thought Svekla was joking, and said she wouldn't go to police because she didn't want to get involved.

He then asked if he could borrow her van to deliver a toolbox he planned to sell, saying he had hidden the toolbox behind the Stardust Motel in an area locals called "Lysol Creek," named after the cheap beverage favoured by the down and out.

The Crown introduced a number of letters, correspondence between Svekla and Koch that started in 2005 and continued even while he was in the Edmonton Remand Centre.

After he was charged with the murders of Rachel Quinney and Teresa Innes, the letter-writing continued with Svekla telling Koch how much he valued her friendship.

He even tried out several book and movie titles for when the story of his life was told.

For the book Svekla came up with "He's Not Lector" and "You Got The Wrong Guy," and for the movie "The Man They Thought They Had."

Svekla foresaw a distribution deal with Fox and offered Koch a 40-per-cent cut if she got him an agent. Svekla was also concerned the movie had to go into production before his preliminary hearing because things might change after his trial started.

Despite her emotional testimony, Koch told the court that she and Svekla were never more than just friends. Two second-degree murder charges notwithstanding, she said "We were friends. I still like him."

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April 3rd, 2008

Testimony came next from a former High Level drug dealer who sold crack cocaine to Theresa Innes. Guilayne Provencale described the woman's drug use as "very heavy."

The two first met when they shared a cab ride. Innes said she wanted to get out of "the lifestyle" but failed to show up for a job serving shooters at the Stardust Motel when it was offered by Provencale.

"She would be so high sometimes she wouldn't even know her own name," Provencale said of Innes.

This caused Provencale to worry about the woman, afraid that she would overdose. It was heard that often Innes had nowhere to live, and that she longed of getting clean and being a mother again to her two children.

"It was not unusual for her to disappear," Provencale said. "She'd come and go. Sometimes I wouldn't hear from her for weeks, sometimes for months."

Provencale also testified that she sold drugs to Innes when she was with Thomas Svekla, saying that this had occured at least ten times. She often spotted the pair together around town.

"At the time it seemed like they had kind of a friendship going on," Provencale said.

Court also heard from a man who stayed in a High Level motel for several months and who sometimes hung out with Innes and Svekla.

A cabbie also testified that he helped Svekla move his belongings out of a High Level apartment late in 2005.

Randy Clarke recalled that among Svekla's belongings was a large – and apparently heavy – black hockey bag. When asked if he needed help carrying it, Svekla declined.

Clarke also remembered Svekla and Innes drinking a few beers at his trailer near Lysol Creek.

However, under cross examination Clarke could not explain why he didn't mention the bag to police when he was initially interviewed.

Daniel Mandrusiak, Svekla's second cousin, testified that Svekla often talked fondly of a woman named Theresa, leaving him the impression the two had dated.

The trial continued April 7th, 2008.

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deadmonton - thomas george svekla - trial - 5