As trial closes, defense contends Aberdeen hotel killing was unintentional

The conversation, captured on a surveillance camera, came after he was arrested in Ontario, days after the discovery of the 52-year-old Novacluse’s body in the Aberdeen motel.

“‘I had sex with her if that’s what you’re asking. She told me to get rough with her,'” Heller said in court, relaying what Miller said in a surveillance video shown earlier in the trial. “‘What did [I] do to her? Choking her, having sex with her. Tell [you] about sex with her? I got too rough with her, choked her. She was kinky into all kinds of this.'”

Miller later said in the conversation that he “choked her too much. I’m sorry. I realized I choked her too much. It was too late.” Miller also said he didn’t mean to do it and panicked upon learning Novacluse had died.

Heller argued that, after lying at first to Sgt. Davidson, Miller opened up and told the truth.

“When he told the officer she was a friend and didn’t mean to do that, there was no reason to disbelieve that,” Heller said.

Heller noted that Miller was intoxicated and believes there is reasonable doubt that he intended to kill Novacluse in the early morning of Aug. 27, 2016.

“The bottom line, in my respectful submission, is this is the kind of case where there is no evidence that Mr. Miller meant to kill her or knew she could likely die from what he was doing,” noted Heller.

Defense outlined that, according to a toxicology report, Novacluse had a blood-alcohol level of 0.24 per cent (245 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millitres of blood), arguing it can lead to emotional and physical instability. Heller argues Novacluse was drinking heavily in Miller’s room on the night of Aug. 26 with other guests present as well.

“We know that somehow, when Miller and Novacluse go into the bathroom, they come out and she seems to be way out of it. She falls,” Heller described.

Crown prosectors argued, however, that Miller was not intoxicated and was aware of what he was doing.

Earlier in the trial, a forensic pathologist said Novacluse died from blunt force trauma and strangulation. Dr. Lisa Steele noted that she suffered two fractured ribs, blunt force trauma to the head, bruising on her neck, an abrasion on her left buttock, and a vaginal tear leading to bleeding in the tissue to her rectum. But Steele could not specify which injury led to Novacluse’s death.

Defense is expected to wrap up its closing arguments at B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

by Chad Klassen

As trial closes, defense contends Aberdeen hotel killing was unintentional

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