NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - The truthfulness and meaning of Robert Pickton's words to police must be the only factors jurors consider when reviewing statements the Crown alleges are a confession to the murders of six women, the judge at Pickton's trial said Wednesday.
Justice James Williams urged the jury to replay the tapes of both the formal statement Pickton gave to police following his arrest in February 2002 and the conversation he had with an undercover officer in his cell.
Both were of such key importance to counsel submissions, they must carefully be considered, he said.
"If you conclude that his words in either or both of the statements are admissions of responsibility for the murders of women, and you conclude that he was speaking truthfully, you can use both statements in determining whether the Crown has proven its case against Mr. Pickton,'' Williams told the seven men and five women who will deliberate the charges.
The defence had argued Pickton's statements were simply reflective of the Port Coquitlam pig farmer parroting back information given to him by police, and that his intelligence level was low enough that he wouldn't have understood the possible significance of his words.
Though a host of other factors swirl around the statements, including fake props in the interview room and lies told by the police, none of those are relevant unless they affect either the truth or meaning of Pickton's words, Williams said in his second day of instructions to the jury.
He gave the length of the formal interview as another example -- it ran 11 hours in all.
Williams said he realized the jury might think that's unfair.
"The length of the interview may be a factor that you can legitimately give effect to if you believe it impacted on truthfulness of what Mr. Pickton said,'' Williams told the jury.
"If for example, you found that he was worn down or exhausted in a way that impacted on the meaning or truthfulness of the statements then the length of the statement or the interview would be relevant.''
In the formal statement, Pickton told police they were making him into more of a mass murderer than he really was, and in his conversation with the undercover officer, Pickton said he was caught after killing 49 women because he got sloppy.
Pickton is currently on trial for the murders of six women and is expected to stand trial on a further 20 charges at the conclusion of these proceedings.
The judge told the jurors late Wednesday that though he initially hoped to finish his instructions in three days, the proceedings were going to take longer.
It's now expected the jurors will be sequestered to begin deliberations on Friday night.
Since he began his instructions on Tuesday, Williams has given the jury an overview of much of the evidence given at trial, including the forensics, the remains of the women and the testimony of experts and civilian witnesses for the Crown.
But he cautioned the jury Wednesday not to take his overview as the gospel of what matters most in the case.
"This is only my review of the evidence, you may recall the evidence differently, you may remember things I haven't touched on, you may have different views,'' he said.
"If I am communicating any view of the evidence here, it's not an intentional thing.''
For most of Wednesday, Williams delivered a condensed version of testimony heard at the trial, including that of Crown witnesses Gina Houston, Scott Chubb and Pat Casanova.
He also reviewed testimony about the found remains of the women into concise summaries, noting that experts had testified the remains of Andrea Joesbury, Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson were all dissected in a similar fashion, as were the bones of Georgina Papin and Brenda Wolfe.
Marnie Frey's remains were also found on the property.
Reading quickly through pages of his charge, Williams also reviewed testimony given about Pickton's level of intelligence, including testing that indicated the accused operated with a learning disability that might have hindered the way he processed language.
But he told the jurors that evidence they'll be able to review during their deliberations will enable them to assess Pickton's communication skills themselves.
