EDMONTON - A former cellmate of Thomas Svekla told police the man accused of two murders had told him a "scary story'' about killing a prostitute.
Asked in court Tuesday about his conversations with Svekla, Justin Delorme repeatedly insisted that while he recalled talking to him while sharing a cell and riding a court van, he could remember absolutely nothing that was said.
But when Crown and defence lawyers read him passages from the transcript of an audiotaped interview he gave to police in 2006, Delorme admitted he told police about Svekla's story and was telling the truth at the time.
"He's like, you guys want to hear a horror story, or something like that. And he was telling me ... he killed a prostitute in Strathcona,'' Delorme tells police in the transcript.
Svekla is accused of murdering Rachel Quinney, 19, and Theresa Innes, 36. Both women were working as prostitutes.
The judge hearing Svekla's case has already heard testimony from another prostitute that she and Svekla were smoking crack in a field in Strathcona County east of Edmonton in 2004 when Svekla told her he had just found Quinney's body. The remains of Innes were found two years later in a hockey bag inside Svekla's sister's garage.
Delorme told officers that Svekla also told him he intended to kill another prostitute outside Edmonton, but forgot he had put the first woman so close to the same spot, and decided against it when the intended victim stumbled across her body.
"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,'' he told police.
Under cross-examination, Delorme admitted that he told police Svekla later said he was just joking, and that he originally brushed the comment off as blustering "jail talk'' aimed at scaring another inmate.
A prison guard working at the Edmonton Institution also testified Tuesday about a conversation he monitored between Svekla and another prisoner, Jerry Wetherelt, in January 2007.
Mike Mah said Wetherelt asked Svekla about Quinney's death, saying he'd read about it in the newspaper. He asked: "Did you do it?''
Svekla told Wetherelt he "just moved'' Quinney's body, adding the stories about him weren't true, said Mah.
"They know nothing. I dragged her body ... I hid it, I left her,'' Mah, reading from his notes, testified Svekla said.
Wetherelt then referred to bitches, and Svekla, laughing, responded, "Bitches deserve it,'' said Mah.
Testifying after Mah, Wetherelt admitted that he told police he had only said a few words to Svekla while they were in prison together. But he testified that Svekla told him he had smoked crack with one of the victims, and that she overdosed on drugs and he put her in a bag and drove to Edmonton.
"He didn't say he killed anyone,'' he said.
Delorme also testified he saw Svekla one more time after his 2006 arrest for killing Innes. Delorme said he saw Svekla in a court hallway after hearing news of his arrest and taunted him, calling him names.
"He said, `The only way I'll get convicted of this is if you rat me out,''' Delorme recalled.
Queen's Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman allowed the transcripts to be read to Delorme. The judge said it was "somewhat incomprehensible'' that Delorme could have read the transcripts an hour before testifying but still not remember anything. Sanderman said that suggested an "unwillingness'' to remember, rather than an inability.
Defence lawyer Robert Shaigec also read passages from the transcript and 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 the time.
Shaigec also read comments by police saying they first spoke with Delorme because Svekla had suggested he may have been involved with Innes's death.
Another man who shared a cell with Svekla, Kirby Auger, testified that he heard Svekla talking to another inmate while six of them were sharing one holding cell.
"He was saying, `That's how easy it is to kill someone,' '' Auger said.
Earlier in the day, the chief toxicologist with the medical examiner's office testified about the levels of cocaine found in the bodies of both Quinney and Innes.
Dr. Graham Jones told court that both women had levels of cocaine that suggested heavy recreational use.
He said due to the high level, he couldn't rule out that the drug contributed to either of their deaths, but that they were on the low side of levels that have been found in people who have overdosed.
