Lawyers clash at close of firearms trial

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This article was published 19/02/2021 (2046 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The trial for a man accused of travelling to Edmonton to sell guns allegedly stolen from Brandon wrapped up on Thursday with the Crown and defence clashing on the key points of evidence.

Mathieu Plamondon pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to commit an indictable offence, possession of restricted and non-restricted firearms for the purpose of trafficking and trafficking restricted and non-restricted firearms.

The trial took place over several days in December, January and February.

The charges are still before the court, and Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta has not delivered her decision.

Plamondon wore a grey sweatshirt and mask as he sat in the accused’s box flanked by two Manitoba sheriffs.

The Crown’s theory is Plamondon’s co-accused stole guns from his father before conspiring with Plamondon to sell them in Edmonton, Ari Millo said in his closing statement.

On May 17, 2018, a housekeeper at an Edmonton hotel was cleaning, but when she picked up a pillow it felt heavy, Millo said. A gun, which was registered to a man in Brandon, fell out.

Over the course of the Edmonton Police Service investigation, police learned a total of 17 firearms had been stolen, he said.

Millo argued that while the guns were brought to Edmonton, the planning and crimes were hatched in Brandon.

“The firearms were stolen from a household here in Brandon, Manitoba … Brandon has a strong interest in prosecuting and deterring the illicit transfer of firearms stolen from its homes,” he said from behind a Plexiglas partition.

“Brandon, Manitoba is the place where the conspiracy to traffic the stolen firearms was planned and initiated. There is a continuity of operation from this province, to Saskatchewan and to Alberta.”

Nicole Harkness, Plamondon’s former girlfriend, testified on the first day of trial. She said Plamondon and his co-accused discussed selling the guns in Brandon. At one point, she said they went to the co-accused’s apartment, where Plamondon took a look at them.

Before travelling to Edmonton, the two went to live on a farm in Saskatchewan while Plamondon was “on the run.” At one point, Harkness testified she found guns hidden in one of their suitcases.

After a few weeks, Plamondon’s co-accused and his girlfriend came to pick them up. The plan became going to Edmonton to sell firearms to a “one-time buyer.”

On May 25, 2018, both Harkness and Plamondon were arrested after Edmonton police found the handgun hidden in a pillowcase in a hotel room they had previously stayed in.

Millo argued Harkness was straightforward and frank when testifying. She admitted to using drugs throughout the time the group was in Edmonton, which shows she is owning her past and was reliable in her narrative of events.

“Nicole Harkness did not deny the obvious, and I think that’s to her credit. She admitted that some days run together and it was hard to differentiate what was happening on a given day two years ago,” the Crown said.

Millo also read text messages allegedly sent by Plamondon to one of the buyers of the firearms, who was listed as “G-Bomb” in Plamondon’s phone. The messages contained slang and street vernacular, which the Crown called a witness to help decipher.

In the messages, the two discuss the time frame Plamondon would be in Edmonton and the guns he would be bringing with him, Millo said. Plamondon also allegedly sent photos of the stolen firearms to the buyer, which Millo argued shows an ongoing conversation between them.

They set up a time to meet and the exchange eventually took place.

“This is a case where the court had to hear a lot of evidence to satisfy itself of one simple, irrefutable conclusion: Mathieu Plamondon is guilty beyond any reasonable doubt,” he said.

Tara Walker, Plamondon’s defence lawyer, did not call any evidence in the trial.

In her closing statement, Walker argued the Crown’s case relies entirely on the testimony of Harkness, the first witness to testify in the trial. Otherwise, she said all the evidence is only circumstantial.

Walker challenged the credibility of Harkness, saying there were significant red flags in what she told the court.

Harkness lied to police in Edmonton initially, Walker said, which shows she was prepared to lie to authority and give evidence she felt fit at that point in time.

Walker also raised issue with Harkness’ admitted drug use and how it might have affected her memory of the events. At one point, Harkness testified she had a bad reaction to a pill and it made her go in and out of consciousness for approximately 12 hours.

“When we look at the credibility of Ms. Harkness, we’re dealing with a witness whose memory has gotten better over time, who self-admits her memory is affected by drugs, who self-admits she was in and out of consciousness for periods of that night … and that’s the key person that ties all of this circumstantial evidence together,” Walker said, also from behind a Plexiglas partition.

There is also the possibility Plamondon was not the one sending text messages to the buyer, Walker said. SIM cards can be changed between phones and any one of the people Plamondon was with could have used his WhatsApp account to communicate.

She also argued there is no evidence specifically tying Plamondon to the iPhone SE the Crown argued he was using.

“We know text messages are often misinterpreted, we know that there are typos, we know that people shorthand stuff and it’s not a real conversation, we have to be careful when we look at all the pieces,” she said.

Walker also took issue with the hotel surveillance footage Crown attorney Adam Gingera showed the court. She said it didn’t give a complete view of the hotel and didn’t show what rooms people were coming to and from.

A date for Hewitt-Michta’s decision is expected to be set in March.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_