deadmonton - thomas george svekla - trial - 7
On February 19th, 2008 Thomas George Svekla went on trial in an Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench courtroom to face two charges of second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Theresa Merrie Innes and Rachel Liz Quinney.
This page is Part Seven of coverage by this site.
- April 28th, 2008
Another choking victim testifies. - April 30th, 2008
Woman tells of Svekla's rehab session admission. - May 1st, 2008
Man claims Svekla stole his hockey bag. - May 8th, 2008
Judge rules on voir dire evidence. - May 9th, 2008
Crown closes case, defence calls no evidence.
April 28th, 2008
Previous testimony in the continuing voir dire hearing offered that Thomas Svekla often liked to choked women when he had sex with them. The beginning of Week Eleven of his trial was no different.
Court heard from another woman who could not be named due to the prevailing publication ban. Additionally the woman was currently in custody, although it was not known on what charge she was being held.
She told of events in a Mill Woods townhouse in 2004. At the time, the woman and Svekla were crack buddies. She also had nowhere to stay – and Svekla knew that.
One night they were doing drugs together in his bedroom when blocked the door with a dresser.
"I had nowhere else to go. I had sex with him. I didn't want to. I told him over and over. He wouldn't let me out of the room," she testified.
On another occasion the two were sitting on a couch having a drink. Svekla was playing with her hair when he suddenly attacked her.
"He had tried choking me. He grabbed me from behind ... he wrapped his legs around me," she said.
"He said: 'How long do you think it would take for me to just snap your neck?' "
Svekla only stopped when she informed him her friends knew of his name and address.
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Court also heard from a man who had opportunity to enter Svekla's High Level apartment twice in late 2005.
Lewis Vandoren testified that while he was the suite Svekla acted nervously.
"He didn't want me snooping around. I wasn't to go in the bedroom," Vandoren said.
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The man did notice there was a large freezer in Svekla's bedroom. Like the wife of Svekla's landlord, who testified earlier, Vandoren thought that was unusual.
"It was odd that it was in his bedroom like that," he said, adding that Svekla's fridge was nearly empty.
Previously in the trial a medical examiner agreed that the body of Theresa Innes may have been frozen at one time.
April 30th, 2008
Court heard from a woman who was in rehab with Thomas Svekla when he admitted in a group therapy session that he came across Rachel Quinney’s body when he was out smoking crack with a prostitute.
The woman, whose name was withheld under the publication ban, testified in the continuing voir dire hearing that Svekla admitted to picking up a prostitute named Bunny, and then smoking crack with her in a cream-coloured truck.
After smoking "eightballs of crack cocaine" in the truck, Svekla needed to get out for some fresh air, she said. "When he got out of the vehicle, he found her.
"He told us that he stumbled in the woods to find Rachel Quinney."
The admission took place in a rehab centre in St. Albert where the woman was trying to kick a crack cocaine addiction.
She said knew of Bunny after once working as a prostitute herself. She told the court she never knew her real name.
"I found out later she was killed," she said.
May 1st, 2008
On the stand came a man's claim that his hockey bag was stolen shortly after he met Thomas Svekla.
The witness, who could not be named under the publication ban, and Svekla were one-time acquaintances.
On May 4th, 2006 he travelled from Fox Creek to stay in High Level overnight. That's where he met a man he was sure was Svekla who asked him for a change of clothes.
It looked like the man had just been released from prison – the witness said his clothes looked like government-issued coveralls.
The witness testified he invited the man into his room where he changed out of the coveralls and stayed for a while.
Having been drinking heavily earlier that night, the witness said that he then passed out behind a building near the hotel. When he returned to his room the next morning, a hockey bag containing his clothes was gone.
Testimony was also heard from the owner of a west-end auto body shop. It was there the RCMP brought Svekla’s Ford truck after they seized it for an opinion of its condition.
The mechanic said the pick-up wasn’t roadworthy, saying that the battery had been removed, the tires were bald, and the ignition was permanently fixed in the "on" position.
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The voir dire ended, leaving Court of Queen's Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman to determine the admissibility of evidence heard over the past two weeks.
Usually evidence of prior behaviour – such as Svekla's habit of choking women during non-conseual sex – is automatically excluded from a trial because it is thought to be prejudicial.
In arguing the merits of including the evidence, Crown prosecutor Marilena Carminati had to demonstrate it was necessary for arriving at the truth and to prove that its value outweighed the prejudice caused by its introduction.
"We have a pattern of (choking) acts by the accused over an extended period of time ... the accused has long-standing knowledge, practice and experience," she argued. "Intent and knowledge are important in this case."
Defence lawyer Rob Shaigec argued against the introduction of evidence of Svekla's choking behaviour.
Shaigec pointed out that medical examiners could not determine that Quinney and Innes were strangled. "Soft smothering" and asphyxiation could only be not ruled out, they said, and the cause of death in both cases was never determined.
"It frankly strains the imagination between the choking acts alleged and the deaths of Quinney and Innes," Shaigec told the court.
The voir dire evidence closed the Crown's case. The defence had not yet indicated whether it would present any evidence at the hearing.
Justice Sanderman was expected to rule on the voir dire evidence later in the week.
Observing the trial was University of Alberta law professor Steven Penny. He commented on the voir dire evidence.
"It's a tricky legal issue," Penny told CBC Edmonton.
"If you don't know how the women died, what relevance is there that he may have choked women on previous occasions?"
May 8th, 2008
Court of Queen's Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman admitted into evidence only some of the testimony of ten witnesses who had appeared during a voir dire in Thomas Svekla's double murder trial.
However, Crown prosecutors appeared pleased that statements made by three women were allowed into the hearing.
Sanderman said the actual weight of consideration of the "similar fact evidence" presented would be calculated later.
The justice admitted the evidence of a high school girlfriend of Svekla's who testified he choked her and initiated a sexual assault.
On its own the woman's testimony would have had no probative value, but another witness later testified Svekla told her that the high school friend had been “the first one to see the bogeyman.”
Sanderman also allowed testimony from a woman who visited Svekla at the Edmonton Remand Centre.
Rebecca Kroetsch told the court she felt like the Jodie Foster movie character 'Clarisse' from Silence of the Lambs.
During a meeting she described as "bone-chilling," Kroetsch said she became convinced Svekla was guilty of the two murder charges. She said she was horrified to realise her former close friend had become a “monster.”
On the stand, Kroetsch quoted Svekla when he wanted to send a message to the high school friend. "She was the first one I ever hurt. She was the first one to see the bogeyman," she said Svekla explained.
Sanderman said the comment provided context for evidence from RCMP interviews with Svekla after his arrest in which he referred to the “bogeyman.”
Also admitted was evidence from a High Level woman who said Svekla attacked her at his apartment in 2005. She told the court Svekla said he was going to “twist” her neck and dump her body “somewhere nobody would ever find it.”
After she played dead, the woman escaped when Svekla turned his back. She reported the matter to police and Svekla was charged. A trial for that incident had yet to take place.
Sanderman did not allow evidence from several women who testified regarding Svekla's penchant for choking behaviour when using crack cocaine, ruling its prejudicial value outweighed its probative value.
About evidence given by a woman who said Svekla choked in a bar, Sanderman said: “It merely portrays Mr. Svekla as a callous abuser of women.”
About evidence given by those who spoke of Svekla's choking of others or being choked himself during crack parties, Sanderman said: “It portrays Mr. Svekla as a careless drug addict seeking the ultimate high.”
And about testimony from a woman who said Svekla tied her up with a silk scarf during sex, Sanderman said: “It paints Mr. Svekla with having characteristics of an individual who forces unwanted kinky sex upon acquaintances.”
Most who testified during the voir dire could not be named under a publication ban.
Court also heard the voice of a woman who had several encounters with Thomas Svekla.
Michelle Michlos had passed away since appearing at Svekla's preliminary in early 2007 and the Crown introduced an audio recording of her prior testimony.
Michlos said she knew Rachel Quinney from the streets of Edmonton and that she also had met Svekla on several occasions.
In her preliminary hearing testimony she was heard telling the court that Svekla told her he found the body of a prostitute in 2004 east of Edmonton.
Justice Sanderman also allowed into evidence a touch of Hollywood – a movie parallel to Svekla's unusual mugging for the cameras after he was first arrested in 2006.
The Crown suggested Svekla was sending a message to witnesses to keep quiet with his fingers-to-lips gesture, similar to one in the 1986 movie At Close Range starring Sean Penn and Christopher Walken.
In the film, Walken's character – a gangster – kills off witnesses before he heads to trial. Svekla told police he re-enacted a scene from the movie after his arrest in an effort to quiet those who might testify against him.
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In his three-and-a-half star out-of-four review of the little-seen film, Roger Ebert compared it to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, a film also filled with "ordinary people whose moral sense is missing and (and who) drift into actions so bad that perhaps even they are appalled."
May 9th, 2008
After eleven weeks of testimony from over 100 witnesses and with nearly 200 exhibits entered, Crown prosecutors announced they had rested their case against Thomas Svekla.
When defence lawyer Robert Shaigec rose in the courtroom he told Justice Sterling Sanderman that no evidence would be called on behalf of his client.
The moment marked two years to the day since Svekla was first charged with the murder of Theresa Innes.
Closing arguments in the trial began on May 22nd, 2008 and were expected to last two days.
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The Last Link on the Left. Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. Stuart P. Bayens. All rights reserved.
This page updated
12:34 2008-05-22.