04-02-2012, 10:01 AM
I am surprised, Rafferty is going to be going to the crime scene also, not sure what to make of it.....
LondonFP - The jury in the first-degree murder trial of Michael Rafferty will visit Monday the remote country spot where the body of eight-year-old Victoria 'Tori' Stafford was found.
The small clearing among the trees and fields off Conc. Rd. 6 N south of Mount Forest is also the place, the Crown claims, where the Woodstock girl was raped and killed.
Rafferty, 31, will also be visiting the scene, as will his lawyer, Crown attorneys, Justice Thomas Heeney and other court officials.
Heeney told jurors Friday how to approach what they see.
"What you see. . . is not evidence," he said. "However, you may find you are better able to understand the evidence given to you in court."
Rafferty has pleaded not guilty to murder, kidnapping and sexual assault causing bodily harm in the April 8, 2009 disappearance of Tori.
She was last seen in a surveillance video with a woman later identified as Terri-Lynne McClintic, now 21. McClintic later confessed to a role in the abduction and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2010.
McClintic described to police a country lane off a rural road that dipped over a culvert, then rose. Near the crest of that laneway, Tori was assaulted and killed, and her body dumped under a pine tree at the end of a pile of rocks, McClintic said.
On Monday, jurors will be given a guide book to the scene and have been told to walk through the area in silence, without talking to each other.
The guidebook provides eight spots, lettered A through G, for the jurors to visit.
The tour begins at a laneway across the road from a house that McClintic described as sitting at an angle to the road.
Jurors will then head up the laneway past a culvert to the crest of the hill, where flags with the appropriate letters will guide them to look back at the house, the rock pile, silos that McClintic identified, and the spot under the tree where Tori's body was found.
Police were to have swept and secured the site by Monday morning.
I went to court for a while on Friday, before they broke for lunch, they were showing slides of the crime scene area from all different angles (see link) Rafferty looked very uncomfortable in the prisoner box, constantly shifting, whether it be removing his glasses, putting them back on, hand up around his collar - like he was loosening his tie, you could see him swallowing, like he was swallowing rocks, his eyes would flit from the witness stand, to the evidence screen in front of him, to his defense team and around, he still kept his mouth straight, but you could see his recognition of the photos in his eyes, you could see there was emotion there, not sure what kind though, they were red and he was rubbing them a lot each time he took of his glasses, he wasn't crying but he may have been showing some sadness. I read tweets that afternoon when they showed pictures of the scene after they removed the rocks (one over 100lbs) and the garbage bags with Tor's remains inside were seen, Rafferty was looking up at the ceiling.....
It will be interesting I am sure for the jurors to see his reactions at the crime scene itself.
Sorry Kip, I guess he will be at that scene once again.
This is the guide book for the jurors:
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/raffe...73076.html
Mount Forest scene evidence photos:
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/raffe...73121.html
LondonFP - The jury in the first-degree murder trial of Michael Rafferty will visit Monday the remote country spot where the body of eight-year-old Victoria 'Tori' Stafford was found.
The small clearing among the trees and fields off Conc. Rd. 6 N south of Mount Forest is also the place, the Crown claims, where the Woodstock girl was raped and killed.
Rafferty, 31, will also be visiting the scene, as will his lawyer, Crown attorneys, Justice Thomas Heeney and other court officials.
Heeney told jurors Friday how to approach what they see.
"What you see. . . is not evidence," he said. "However, you may find you are better able to understand the evidence given to you in court."
Rafferty has pleaded not guilty to murder, kidnapping and sexual assault causing bodily harm in the April 8, 2009 disappearance of Tori.
She was last seen in a surveillance video with a woman later identified as Terri-Lynne McClintic, now 21. McClintic later confessed to a role in the abduction and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2010.
McClintic described to police a country lane off a rural road that dipped over a culvert, then rose. Near the crest of that laneway, Tori was assaulted and killed, and her body dumped under a pine tree at the end of a pile of rocks, McClintic said.
On Monday, jurors will be given a guide book to the scene and have been told to walk through the area in silence, without talking to each other.
The guidebook provides eight spots, lettered A through G, for the jurors to visit.
The tour begins at a laneway across the road from a house that McClintic described as sitting at an angle to the road.
Jurors will then head up the laneway past a culvert to the crest of the hill, where flags with the appropriate letters will guide them to look back at the house, the rock pile, silos that McClintic identified, and the spot under the tree where Tori's body was found.
Police were to have swept and secured the site by Monday morning.
I went to court for a while on Friday, before they broke for lunch, they were showing slides of the crime scene area from all different angles (see link) Rafferty looked very uncomfortable in the prisoner box, constantly shifting, whether it be removing his glasses, putting them back on, hand up around his collar - like he was loosening his tie, you could see him swallowing, like he was swallowing rocks, his eyes would flit from the witness stand, to the evidence screen in front of him, to his defense team and around, he still kept his mouth straight, but you could see his recognition of the photos in his eyes, you could see there was emotion there, not sure what kind though, they were red and he was rubbing them a lot each time he took of his glasses, he wasn't crying but he may have been showing some sadness. I read tweets that afternoon when they showed pictures of the scene after they removed the rocks (one over 100lbs) and the garbage bags with Tor's remains inside were seen, Rafferty was looking up at the ceiling.....
It will be interesting I am sure for the jurors to see his reactions at the crime scene itself.
Sorry Kip, I guess he will be at that scene once again.
This is the guide book for the jurors:
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/raffe...73076.html
Mount Forest scene evidence photos:
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/raffe...73121.html
The only reason people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.