Prosecutor at 1st-degree murder trial alleges accused drugged, killed St. Albert senior

The daughter of a St. Albert senior unknowingly looked on as her father's accused killer had a storage bin containing his body loaded into a taxi and driven away, a jury heard Wednesday.

Crown prosecutors opened their case against Beryl Musila, 33, who is on trial in Edmonton's Court of King's Bench for the first-degree murder of Ronald Worsfold.

On Tuesday, Musila pleaded guilty to indecent interference with Worsfold's remains and not guilty to first-degree murder. 

Worsfold was killed on the evening of July 7, 2017, in the St. Albert apartment suite where he lived with Musila, Crown prosecutor Patricia Hankinson told the jury of 12 people, plus two alternates. 

Hankinson alleges that Musila drugged Ronald Worsfold, and said that an autopsy later found Ativan and a small amount of alcohol in his system. 

The prosecutor alleges that Musila believed she'd caused Ronald Worsfold to overdose so, after some consideration, she beat him with a hammer and then stabbed him three times — all of which she said Musila initially admitted to RCMP after her arrest.

Hankinson said she and her fellow prosecutor John Schmidt plan to call about 50 witnesses over the course of the six-week trial, and that the jury will hear evidence about both the killing and about Musila's movements over the next two days.

On July 8, 2017, the Crown alleges Musila placed the senior's body in a blue Rubbermaid storage tub and transported it to several different locations.

Worsfold's daughter Stacey Worsfold was outside her father's apartment building when the tub was loaded into a taxi and driven away, she testified Wednesday. She said her father both lived there and had been the longtime manager of the building.

She was driving past Meadowside Manor on Mission Avenue in St. Albert with her sister-in-law, young son and two of his friends on their way to the beach.

She said decided to stop because she saw her father's truck, which had been stolen the week before, in the parking lot. 

She said she thought it was odd he hadn't contacted her to say it had turned up.

She said she tried honking to get his attention, and calling his home phone but there was no response.

As she banged on the apartment building's door, she said she saw Musila's face appear in the window of her father's second-storey suite. She said she recognized her, and said that Musila had rented a suite in the building.