Defence lawyers representing accused killer Kalen Schlatter spent several hours today questioning an "alternate suspect" who they say came along and killed Tess Richey after their client finished fooling around with her in an outdoor stairwell of a home under renovation in the city’s Church-Wellesley Village in November 2017.
The man, who can be identified only as J.G. due to a publication ban, spent all day on the stand in a Toronto courtroom at Schlatter’s first-degree murder trial on Thursday.
While questioning J.G., defence Lawyer Lydia Riva suggested that in the early morning hours of Nov. 25, 2017, the man followed Richey as she, her friend Ryley Simard, and Schlatter wandered around the neighbourhood after leaving Crews and Tangos, a popular bar in the city’s gay village.
Riva claimed that when Schlatter finished fooling around with Richey in an outdoor stairwell near Church and Dundonald streets at around 5 a.m., J.G. hopped over a gate to get access to the property. She accused the witness of going to the stairwell and attacking Richey that morning after Schlatter had left.
“You watched them… didn’t you,” Riva asked the witness.
“No, ma’am,” he responded.
“You came over the gate and you thought Ms. Richey would be happy to see you?”
J.G. responded, “What gate?”
“You were surprised that she rejected you,” Riva said. “You assaulted her, there was a struggle, and you killed her.”
“No ma’am,” the witness stated again.
Video surveillance footage previously presented in court showed Richey and Schlatter walking hand-in-hand down a driveway toward the stairwell at around 4:14 a.m.
Approximately 45 minutes later, Schlatter is spotted on camera walking back down the laneway alone.
Richey’s body was found days later in the stairwell by her mother and a family friend. Schlatter’s semen and saliva were found on her clothing, the court previously heard.
Witness says Richey initiated conversation with him
During his testimony on Thursday, J.G., who is soft spoken and stands about five-foot-three-inches tall, described his interaction with Richey that morning.
He told the court that he left his apartment at around 3 a.m. and walked to a bank machine to take out cash.
He said that is when he came upon Richey, Schlatter, and Simard by a hot dog stand near Church and Wellesley streets.
He said Richey initiated a conversation with him by saying something to the effect of “come here.”
J.G., who said he has Asperger’s syndrome and has trouble talking to girls, told the court that he “shyly smiled” at Richey but did not respond verbally.
He said Richey was quickly pulled away by Schlatter and Simard, who were on either side of her with their arms linked.
J.G. told the jury that they were each pulling Richey in opposite directions like a game of “tug of war” and Schlatter ultimately won. He said the trio began walking north on Church Street.
He said after the three left, he “looped around” to try to run into Richey again because “she seemed interested” in him and wanted to have a conversation.
J.G. said he turned on Dundonald Street, where he saw the group again.
Video surveillance footage presented in court showed J.G. walking on Dundonald Street as he passed Richey, Schlatter, and Simard, who were on the opposite side of the road.
At one point, Richey walks into the middle of the street toward J.G. and appears to say something to him.
J.G. said Richey called out, “Hey, come here. I want to talk to you.”
J.G said it appeared Richey wanted to have a conversation with him but she was not being “allowed to by the man she was with.”
The man he was referring to, he said, was Schlatter.
In the video, Richey appeared to wave but J.G. said he was too shy to respond to her and kept walking.
He said he went home a short time after that interaction and did not see Richey again that night.
Defence lawyer Lydia Riva called J.G.’s timeline into question when she presented video surveillance footage appearing to show the witness walking by Crews and Tangos more than half an hour before he said he had left his apartment that night.
She also questioned his assertion that he had only been out of his apartment for about 15 minutes.
Video surveillance footage presented in court showed him walking around the neighbourhood at various points for approximately an hour.
He later clarified that he meant his interactions with Richey, Simard, and Schlatter only lasted for about 15 minutes.
Witness volunteered his DNA to police, Crown says
Riva also questioned J.G. about the timing of when he went to police with information about the case.
J.G. approached police on Dec.1. 2017 after reading an article about Richey’s body being found.
While he admitted that he saw the missing persons posters up around the neighbourhood before he went to police, he said he didn’t recognize the girl in the photo.
He said the article mentioned where Richey’s body had been found and that is what triggered the memory of his interaction with her.
While he admitted to Riva that he went out that night “looking for sex or something,” he also confirmed to the court that he doesn’t have many friends and he sometimes wanders around the neighbourhood as a way to interact with people.
During cross-examination, the Crown noted that the witness chose to reach out to police and voluntarily gave police a sample of his DNA.
The Crown alleges that it was Schlatter who strangled Richey after she refused to have sex with him that night.
Both Schlatter and Richey had been at Crews and Tangos on the night the 22-year-old disappeared but the two did not meet until after the bar let out shortly after 2 a.m.
Schlatter previously testified that he grabbed hot dogs with Richey and Simard and the three hung around the neighbourhood for a little while.
When he and Richey were alone after Simard had left, Schlatter told the court the two walked to the secluded stairwell to “make out” and “feel each other up.”
He said Richey was alive when he left her in the stairwell that morning.
The court previously heard that no one other than Schlatter was spotted on camera walking down the laneway around the time it is believed Richey was killed.
The Crown also told the jury that J.G. isn’t spotted on any video surveillance cameras in the neighbourhood after 3:38 a.m. that morning, when he said he went home.
A former cellmate of the accused also previously testified that Schlatter confessed to choking Richey to death with a scarf and ejaculating on her body.
Schlatter has denied killing Richey and suggested that the sexual encounter between them was consensual.
The trial is expected to continue on Friday at 10 a.m.
Notes from inside the courtroom:
