Lawyer says no strong evidence linking accused to second Saanich murder

The accused is on trial for the murders of Stephanie Elk and William Bradshaw, but the Crown’s case in Bradshaw’s killing is weak, says Mark Berry.

Strong circumstantial evidence may point to Christopher Douglas Cathcart as the killer of one victim in a double killing four years ago, but not the other, a lawyer said in closing submissions Thursday. Cathcart is on trial for two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of his girlfriend, 39-year-old Stephanie Elk — who went by Jade — and William Bradshaw, 36. Their bodies were found within about 450 metres of each other near Uptown shopping centre on Oct. 19, 2022.

Lawyer Mark Berry, who is acting as amicus to ensure Cathcart, who is representing himself, receives a fair trial, argued that the Crown’s case in Bradshaw’s killing is weaker than in Elk’s. Even if Cathcart did kill Bradshaw, Berry said, it’s unclear if he had the intent required for a second-degree murder conviction. “If you’re at the stage with any of this where you’re saying the Crown is probably right, that’s not good enough,” he said to Justice Jennifer Power, who is presiding over the judge-alone trial.

“It’s got to be that there’s just no realistic way that the Crown has this wrong.” Crown prosecutor Lorne Phipps said in his closing submissions last week that video and forensic evidence and witness testimony prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was Cathcart who killed both victims. He said the evidence shows Cathcart stabbed Bradshaw three times between about 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 19, 2022, in a grassy median between the northbound and southbound lanes of Blanshard Street, just south of Saanich Road, where Cathcart and Elk had been camping.

Phipps argued that Elk witnessed the killing and that was at least part of Cathcart’s motivation to kill her. On home-security video from the area, a person was seen after 10:30 a.m. following another into a stranger’s home on Bethune Avenue. A young woman inside the home testified she saw two people she didn’t know in her living room, one bent over the other, who was on the ground, propped against a couch.

While hiding in her closet and on the phone with 911, she heard screaming and then footsteps moving around her house. Her door was broken open, and a man dressed in all black and with blood on him told her: “Sorry about the body.” Police arrived soon after and found Cathcart in a backyard next door.

He was holding a mallet in one hand and a tool in his other hand, and did not obey officers’ demands to drop them. He was arrested after officers took him down with a Taser. Police seized a knife from a nearby backyard that contained Cathcart’s DNA on the handle, Bradshaw’s blood under the hilt and Elk’s blood on the blade.

Phipps said Cathcart was essentially caught “red-handed,” and there was no one else who could have killed Elk. Berry argued, however, that another person could have killed Bradshaw in the encampment, dropped the knife and left the area without being captured on video. Cathcart could have picked up the knife, covering the killer’s DNA with his own, he said.

If the judge does not find it possible that another person killed Bradshaw, she must consider whether the Crown has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Cathcart had the requisite intent for murder, Berry said. “I’ll ask the court to consider: Is it reasonably possible that Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Cathcart had some sort of brief, sudden, spontaneous negative interaction that turned violent?” Berry also asked the judge to consider whether Bradshaw was moving during the altercation and the person stabbing him did not mean to stab him in the chest and cause his death.

Cathcart gave his own closing submissions last week, quickly becoming bogged down by making arguments about search and seizure issues and the admissibility of evidence. Power reminded him that the time for arguments about the admissibility of evidence had passed, and closing submissions were his opportunity to argue the Crown had not proven his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. She also told him that he could not enter evidence during his submissions.

“The only evidence is what the witnesses said when they were on the stand and the documents that are marked and the videos that are marked,” Power said. Cathcart later argued there was no evidence that he was the individual seen inside the Bethune Avenue home where Elk was killed. He also asked the judge to infer that his DNA transferred to the murder weapon because he had an altercation with the killer while the killer held the knife and Cathcart was sweating profusely.

Power is expected to deliver her verdict on Sept. 25. Cathcart will receive the verdict via video from a cell in the courthouse, because he is not allowed in the courtroom after multiple outbursts during the trial, which began in February and took place over more than 40 days. He has sworn at the judge and accused her and police of being “dirty,” and claimed Crown lawyers misrepresented evidence.