Accused’s DNA found on victim, expert tells Dartmouth murder trial
Editor’s note: Some readers may find some details in this article disturbing.
Testimony by a DNA expert from the RCMP national forensic laboratory in Ottawa highlighted evidence Monday at a Dartmouth murder trial.
Richard George Willis, 65, of no fixed address is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Eleanor Harding, 84, who was found strangled to death in her Dartmouth home in July 2020.
Willis’s trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court got underway Jan. 9 and is scheduled to sit for 20 days, although lawyers are confident it will wrap up sooner.
A 14-member jury is hearing the evidence, with Justice James Chipman presiding.
On Monday, forensic specialist Marc Lett testified that Willis’s DNA was identified in fingernail clippings from both of Harding’s hands.
Willis’s DNA was also present on a pair of jeans that were wrapped around Harding’s neck when her son discovered her body face down in the hallway of her home at 3 Lynwood Dr. on the morning of July 11, 2020.
A medical examiner told the court last week that those jeans were likely used as a ligature to strangle the elderly woman.
In addition, Willis’s DNA was confirmed in two different places on the interior headband of a black fedora that was located under an open window in the basement of Harding’s home.
On cross-examination by defence lawyer Laura McCarthy, Lett admitted there is no way to say how or when DNA is deposited on something.
The expert also agreed DNA can still be detectable on a piece of clothing after it is washed.
The Crown alleges Willis broke into the house through a basement window in the early morning hours of Jan. 10, 2020, murdered Harding and ransacked her bedroom before fleeing with some of her possessions.
Investigators seized an LG cellphone that was also on the floor beneath the basement window.
Gilles Marchand, an RCMP digital forensic analyst, provided evidence about data extracted from that phone.
According to the extraction, the phone contained three user accounts for social media apps associated with Willis. On July 10, the phone was used at about 2:24 a.m. to make one call and send one text and then received an incoming call at about 2:30 a.m.
Victim’s items found
The jury also heard evidence Monday from two Halifax Regional Police officers.
Const. Joey Malcolm told the court he and his police service dog, Casey, were called to the homicide scene on the evening of July 12 to search the area for items of interest. About three hours after they began searching, the dog laid down in thick bushes across the street from Harding’s house, indicating “she had found something,” Malcolm said.
He said there were several items in the bushes, including papers and cards with Harding’s name on them and a leather purse.
“I saw those items as I approached her,” Malcolm said.
Sgt. Andre Habib, head of the force’s forensic identification section, testified that a ground search and rescue team discovered Harding’s iPhone on July 13 in bushes across the street from her home.
Over the next few days, dozens of documents, ID cards and bank cards belonging to Harding were retrieved from along both sides of Waverley Road, north of her house. Some of the items were located by homeowners, while others were found by Habib.
Crown attorney Scott Morrison showed the jury video clips of a Black man, wearing a black fedora with a white stripe and a grey or beige suit and carrying a flashlight, walking past Mic Mac Amateur Aquatic Club on Prince Albert Road in Dartmouth at 2:33 p.m. and past a Tim Hortons shop on Waverley Road at 3:14 p.m.
The jury also saw videos of what appears to be the same man walking outbound on Waverley Road at 5:34 a.m., near where some of Harding’s items were strewn, and then exiting a vehicle farther out Waverley Road at about 6 a.m. The man in those videos was bald and was not wearing a hat or carrying a flashlight.
Last week, the jury heard that a flashlight in the “on” position was on the floor of Harding’s bedroom when forensic officers arrived at the crime scene.
