Calgary man admits he followed Arcelie Laoagan after she got off a C-Train in 2008, then sexually assaulted and killed her, leaving her body on a pathway near a northeast LRT station.
Christopher James Watcheston, 24, is charged with first-degree murder in the Calgary woman's death. The trial before a judge alone started Monday.
According to an agreed statement of facts read in court, Watcheston and Laoagan, who did not know each other, both rode the C-Train from downtown to the Franklin station on the night of Jan. 17, 2008. Watcheston followed the woman and then attacked her.
Watcheston's semen was found inside Laoagan's vagina. The mother of five sons died of blunt injury to her head. She was found naked from the waist down, with her pants around her right ankle.
Watcheston disposed of the victim's purse and identification in a neighbour's garbage can, said the statement of facts read by the prosecution. The accused, then 21, was arrested at a friend's house a week after Laoagan's death.
Christopher Watcheston, seen after his arrest in January 2008, pleaded not guilty Monday to first-degree murder.Christopher Watcheston, seen after his arrest in January 2008, pleaded not guilty Monday to first-degree murder. (CBC)
Despite the admission that he committed crimes against the woman, Watcheston pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder on Monday.
"The issues that we'll have to be dealing with relates to whether the Crown has proven the necessary intent for murder, and whether or not the Crown has proven the necessary facts to establish construct of first-degree murder," said Crown prosecutor Gordon Wong.
Laoagan worked two jobs with the dream of bringing her husband and sons, aged eight to 20, to Canada from the Philippines. At the time of her death, she hadn't seen her family in six years.
Brendan Nelson, the Crown's first witness and Laoagan's co-worker on the night shift at West Canadian Graphics, testified the "quiet and shy" woman left work before the end of her 11 p.m. shift on Jan. 17, 2008, because there was nothing left to do.
Court heard that Laoagan made a series of phone calls from her cellphone to a friend after the attack. But there was confusion over where she was located as her friend thought she was calling from her workplace.
Police searched the downtown area and also called her cellphone and left several messages.
A passerby found Laoagan's body on the pathway the next morning.
Marlyn Hori, Laoagan's sister who moved to Calgary from Ontario after her death, told reporters it was a difficult day to sit in the courtroom and hear all the details that were released.
"It's not easy of course," said Hori, with her mother, Lydia Sombrito, who had travelled from the Philippines, beside her. "We're waiting for the decision. Justice for my sister's death."
- Indian Journalist.
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