deadmonton - the trial of michael white - march 1st, 2006
Liana White, 29, was stabbed to death July 12th, 2005.
Michael White, then 28, was charged with second-degree murder and offering an indignity to a dead body.
the michael white trial | march 14th, 2006 >>
Michael White's scheduled month-long preliminary hearing began without a usual publication ban.
Provincial court Judge Michael Stevens-Guille refused to grant the Crown's request for a ban as White's defence lawyer Larry Anderson did not seek one.
Preliminary hearings are held to determine if there is enough evidence to send a case to trial. They also offer the defence a glimpse of the Crown's trial strategy.
Most of the evidence the Crown was expected to introduce at the hearing had already been reported following the February 22nd Alberta Court of Appeal decision to revoke White's bail.
At the time the court ruled against imposing a publication ban seeking "to maintain public confidence in the justice system,” the judges ruled.
The preliminary trial began with with testimony from persons who called 911 operators about Liana White's abandoned SUV. Also taking the stand were the officers who initially found the vehicle and interviewed her husband.
City police Constable William Allen told court how he and Constable Vern Tuttle discovered Liana's 1991 Ford Explorer.
The shoes were "placed as if perfectly positioned" outside the door of the SUV, Allen stated. The driver's door was open and inside he found a set of keys on the floor and a daytimer on the seat. Allen started the engine to check that the SUV had gas.
Allen said he stowed the items found outside the car inside, rolled up the window and turned off the motor, locked the vehicle, taking the keys with him.
Allen then called Ashley White's cell number, found in the daytimer, but got no answer.
Allen and Tuttle ran an ownership check on the vehicle's licence plate and got the White family's address on Warwick Crescent. Getting no answer on the home phone, the constables drove over to the residence.
When no one answered the door, Allen said they entered the garage with the keys from the SUV. Inside they found various items labelled with numbers and carefully placed in numeric sequence.
After unlocking the front door of the home, they found no one inside. "I noticed that the house was very clean, immaculate," Allen said. "Nothing was out of place." He added there were no objects on tables or counters, and even the child's bedroom was spotless.
The officers found more family phone numbers and soon reached Michael White at work. Allen said White arrived at the house within about 15 minutes, in an emotional state.
Allen testified that White said his wife, a nurse, was four months pregnant and that the baby was wanted. Asked about the couple's finances, White told him they "were making do, week-to-week type of thing." Allen said White told him he had last seen his wife between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m.
When Allen first inspected the SUV and moved the items found in and near it, he did not realise he was dealing with a homicide.
On July 13th, with Liana White still missing, forensic investigators recreated the original parking-lot scene inside a police garage.
"They wanted me to try to place the objects that I had found, in a fashion where a photograph could be taken," Allen said.
The next testimony came from Sergeant John Normand, who found that the driver's seat of Liana's Ford Explorer was pushed almost all the way back.
Normand, a man of medium height, said he owns a similar vehicle to White's and drives with the seat farther forward than he found in White's SUV on July 12th.
Detective Paul Wright testified that he helped organise the search for Liana White.
Wright spoke to Michael White on Sunday, July 17th. White told him where his own search party had been looking the day before and asked Wright where he should go to stay out of their way.
Wright suggested he follow a similar path as the day before. Later, Wright learned that White and his party had found the body later in the day (see note).
Court then heard testimony from Dona Piercy, a palm-reader at the Russian Tea Room.
Liana White visited Piercy three days before she was killed and said she planned to leave her husband. White and Piercy met on at least three occasions, starting in the fall of 2003.
"She never had any ill will against Michael White, but she said she didn't love him anymore," Piercy testified. "She was very unhappy."
White's lawyer, Larry Anderson, attempted to portray Piercy as not credible during cross examination, grilling her on the details of her meetings with Liana.
"It's (Liana's) palm expressing this, not her voice," Anderson said to the court. Piercy rebuffed the suggestion, saying Liana actually stated she was going to leave her husband.
However, Piercy said she was unclear about the dates on which she talked to police, admitting she was ill and has problems with her memory.
On the stand next was Liana White's mother, Maureen Kelly.
Kelly testified she noticed a few strange things in her daughter's house on the day she went missing.
Kelly said the house was much neater than usual with absolutely nothing lying around. She noticed a lamp missing from the bedside table in Michael and Liana's bedroom.
Kelly also said she found her son-in-law’s behaviour odd. When Michael returned that night from the police station, she wanted badly to talk to him about Liana.
"But he really wouldn't talk to me about it," she said. "He never offered any answer on what he thought might have happened."
Michael went downstairs and fell asleep in front of the TV. Kelly said she didn't sleep that night, instead pacing through the house. She said Michael snored all night.
On March 6th, 2006, White’s defence lawyer Larry Anderson asked for – and received – a ban on publication of evidence being presented during the hearing.
The unexpected move prohibited media from publishing details of Liana White’s death and the subsequent police investigation.
Provincial court Judge Michael Stevens-Guille said the defence can apply for and get a publication ban whenever it asks for one, regardless of whether a ban was in effect up to that point.
“It is not so much when the application is made, but who (makes it),” Stevens-Guille said.
The preliminary trial continued March 14th, 2006
Note:
On October 19th, 2006 Michael White's legal counsel advised the media that statements which appeared in earlier published reports, that a search party led by White found Liana White's body, were not accurate and that Michael White states that he did not lead the search team that found Liana's body.