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.
Victim's daughter testifies
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.
She said Musila told her that she'd had a fight with her father and that he left to go for a walk.
"I told her to get her stuff and get out of my dad's apartment," Stacey Worsfold testified.
Musila said no and told her she was cleaning, the daughter said. She said Musila refused to let her into the suite, so she decided she wasn't leaving and stayed in the parking lot.
She said she waited for hours, and that at one point Musila came to the window and told her she was harassing her and that she planned to call police.
As the afternoon went by, other people began to arrive. A man brought a suitcase that he took inside the building, and later another man brought in a large, blue storage tub, she told court.
Eventually, one of the men carried the bin back out. She said it was heavy because the man appeared to be straining.
She said the bin was then loaded into a taxi, which Musila also got into, and that the driver then drove off.
Stacey Worsfold said when she was eventually able to get into the apartment and brought the kids in with her. She said it was "weirdly cleaned."
"I was looking around the apartment, noticing things that were just off," she said.
When her father didn't return, family members fanned out to search for him at local businesses, she said.
I was looking around the apartment, noticing things that were just off. - Stacey Worsfold
Later in the day, a police officer called and encouraged her to file a missing person report.
When two RCMP officers subsequently arrived at the suite, they examined the bedroom and discovered blood on the floor near a safe, and a large blood stain on the mattress which had been covered by fresh sheets.
She said she watched as police moved some pillows on the floor to discover a piece of the carpet had been cut out.
She said that at that point, officers told her that she needed to go to the local RCMP detachment.
Body transported to several locations: prosecutor
During her opening statement, Hankinson said she plans to call evidence about Musila's movements and the location of the bin containing Ronald Worsfold's body over the course of the day on July 8, 2017.
The prosecutor said the jury will hear that Musila was driven around to several locations and different residences throughout the day, both by people she knew and taxi drivers, and that the storage tub was transported as well.
She said that at one point the tub was left outside a hotel in Morinville, Alta.
She alleges that ultimately Musila brought the bin and other belongings to a rural property outside of Edmonton where a party was being held to celebrate the end of Patrick Tansem-Reid's parole term. Party attendees were drinking alcohol and using LSD and marijuana, and at one point Musila had Tansem-Reid and her boyfriend Robert Rafters help move the blue tub into a forested area.
The next day, Tansem-Reid and another man went and brought the bin back out of the forested area. That's when Tansem-Reid called the RCMP, Hankinson said.
Interviews with RCMP
Meanwhile, while Ronald Worsfold was still missing, Hankinson said Musila spoke to police and denied knowing anything about his whereabouts.
She also stopped by a storage unit in St. Albert that she'd rented, Hankinson said. The prosecutor told the jury that evidence about the unit along with computer searches she alleges were done by Musila may offer insight to a possible motive.
Hankinson said Musila was arrested after the body was discovered, and that in her second interview with RCMP she, at first, told police she'd drugged and then killed Ronald Worsfold.
Hankinson said Musila then changed her story to say that Rafters was actually involved in the death, but Hankinson said she plans to call evidence of Rafters' whereabouts on the night of Worsfold's death showing that he was elsewhere.
Rafters will be among the witnesses prosecutors plan to call to give evidence.
