Accused killer said he shot victim 4 times, Crown's key witness tells jury
CBC
A man on trial for murder told others he had shot a Moncton teenager four times, the Crown prosecutor's key witness testified Wednesday.
The witness said he was among a group of six people who went to Joedin Leger's Moncton home two years ago planning to rob him and his girlfriend of money, drugs and vape products.
The witness testified on the 15th day of the jury trial of Riley Phillips, who is charged with second-degree murder. It's alleged Phillips killed Leger in Moncton on April 25, 2022.
The 20-year-old witness cannot be named because he was under 18 in April 2022.
The witness said he was standing outside Leger's Logan Lane duplex with Phillips, Hayden Leblanc and Nicholas McAvoy. He said he heard a sound like a door being kicked in, followed within seconds by four to five gunshots inside the duplex.
The witness said he looked inside the door and saw Phillips jumping down the stairs. The group ran back to a waiting vehicle, where Phillips showed what the witness described as a gunshot wound.
"'The f--ker shot me. But it's OK, I put four in him,' something along those lines," the witness recalled Phillips saying.
The man was the 24th witness to testify during the trial, and the first to directly place Phillips at the scene of Leger's death.
The witness said his involvement began the night before, April 24, 2022, when he called Leblanc looking to buy cocaine. He testified Leblanc asked if he wanted to make some money by taking part in a robbery.
The witness said he met with Leblanc, McAvoy and brothers Hunter and Jerek England, and they formed a plan to rob Leger and his girlfriend, Chantal Boudreau. The witness said he had a vague idea of where the pair lived because Boudreau's son had told him a few days earlier.
The witness said they borrowed a friend's Honda Civic for the night to carry out the plan. They drove to the home of the England brothers' father in Irishtown, north of Moncton, to get a .38 calibre revolver. The witness testified the gun was loaded with six rounds when they left the Irishtown home.
Early on the morning of April 25, the witness said he and Leblanc, McAvoy and the England brothers drove around the north end neighbourhood where they believed Leger and Boudreau lived. They were looking for her Chevrolet Cobalt. When they spotted it, they approached the home and looked inside, concluding they had the right house, he said.
"Somebody came up with the idea of getting Riley, so we went to get Riley," the witness testified.
At Phillips's grandparent's home on Ryan Street in Moncton, the witness said Leblanc spoke to Phillips around 5 a.m. but Phillips didn't want to go with them yet.
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