What the jury didn't hear in Sudbury murder trial

Now that the jury has begun deliberating in the Sudbury murder trial of Felicity Altiman, here are some of the interesting courtroom moments they didn't get to hear.

It is rare to see a judge in a courtroom drama on TV or movie stopping proceedings to object during a trial, but it happens sometimes in real-life cases.

Felicity Alitman, 43, is accused of murdering her 75-year-old neighbour Robert Keskinen in December 2020 in his Kathleen Street apartment in Sudbury. (Facebook)

Justice Dan Cornell is presiding over Altiman's trial, who is accused of second-degree murder in the brutal stabbing death of 75-year-old Robert Keskinen in December 2020.

In TV and movies, it's lawyers that often stand up and shout 'objection!' during questioning and the judge makes a quick decision whether to sustain or overrule it.

However, in the Altiman trial, it was the judge who had objections to what he was hearing, pausing the proceedings and asking both the jury and witness to leave the room.

It happened at least twice during witness testimony Oct. 8.

Wayne Shabogesic was sitting on the stand holding an eagle feather and being questioned by the Crown when Cornell stopped him to address defence attorney Steve Hinkson with "grave concerns."

Once the jury of six women and six men and Shabogesic had left the room, Cornell admonished Hinkson for his client's behaviour.

Reacting to witness testimony

Altiman, who sat next to Hinkson at the defence table rather than the prisoner's box, was wearing casual clothes and her long, dark hair in a braid.

Cornell accused her of making gestures of agreement and disagreement in response to Shabogesic's testimony.

"The defendant must not indicate in any fashion that she agrees or disagrees with what the witness is saying," he said.

Altiman had been at Shabogesic's apartment Christmas Eve with a small group of others "partying," drinking and doing drugs.

Protecting the witness' credibility

Cornell interrupted the Shabogesic's testimony a second time during Hinkson's cross-examination.

Hinkson posited to Shabogesic that he spoke to the police several times and never mentioned that the accused left several times and had changed her clothes.

The judge took issue with that line of questioning about statements made to the police and kicked the jury and witness out again.

"Not sure what is going on here, but is what the defence is suggesting to the witness that he made a prior inconsistent statement to police?" an exasperated Cornell asked.

The body of Robert Keskinen was found in his Kathleen Street apartment on Boxing Day 2020. He had been stabbed to death. (Obituary photo)

"Just going to put it this way, if you are going to go down that road, that he said something different or omitted, there is a procedure to be had."

Shabogesic testified a few times during the trial that Altiman had left several times during the party on Christmas Eve, a fact corroborated by a couple of his police statements noted by both the judge and Crown.

"I want to make it clear, I am not going to let you impugn the witness' credibility," Cornell told Hinkson after he asked to take an early lunch break to regroup.

Missing video surveillance

An interesting fact brought up during the testimony of one of the first responding officers was never explored.

Earlier on the same day Shabogesic testified, Det. Const. John Barry took the stand.

The court heard that he was a detective with the break-and-enter robbery unit for Greater Sudbury Police Service when the call came in for ambulance assistance with a dead body Dec. 26, 2020.

"My first thought was that I was aware that the building had CCTV cameras, from being there prior," Barry said.

He accompanied building superintendent James Stewart to a locked room where the video recording device was to secure surveillance camera footage.

It was just the two of them and Stewart had the password for the device.

Greater Sudbury Police are asking the public for information to find out who is responsible for a murder in the city on Boxing Day. The body of Robert Keskinen, 75, was discovered in a Kathleen Street residence around 2:20 p.m. (File)

Barry asked the superintendent to queue up some video that would show the hallway, as he said three cameras would have covered the path to and from the room.

Stewart told him that at the time, video footage was only available from 2 p.m. on Dec. 25, 2020, due to a power outage.

The last time Keskinen had been in contact with anyone was Christmas Eve.

When asked if he followed up with Sudbury Hydro to confirm a power outage, he said "No."

A Greater Sudbury Utilities spokesperson, Andrea Bardales, confirmed to CTVNewsNorthernOntario.ca in an email Tuesday there was a short power outage in the 500 block of Kathleen Street from 10:08 to 10:33 a.m. Dec. 24.

"I was able to retrieve the control log history for Dec. 24-25, 2020. We had an outage affecting the 2F5 breaker, which powers the area in question on Kathleen Street," Bardales said.

"We have no records of a power interruption on the 25th."

Barry testified he was able to look at some of the videos to determine the proper angles, but did not go back and watch any clips.

The videos were going to be downloaded and put on a USB drive and he worked overtime to download the video.

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Barry said he took the initiative with the video because he didn't want to lose potentially valuable evidence such as the video being over- or re-written.

He left the scene around 4:32 p.m. that afternoon.

Before Barry left the scene, he said he told other officers on the scene the importance of securing the video so the criminal investigators would have access to them.

He testified he had no further involvement in the investigation beyond that day.

The court heard that Stewart was the only one with access to the video recordings and that police did not seize the surveillance equipment.

As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, the jury was still deliberating on its verdict.

CTV News will continue to monitor the case and provide an update when a verdict is reached.