Accused says he didn't act alone

Photo: Castanet Staff

Cody Legebokoff is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the Prince George area.

A young man accused of murdering three women and a teenage girl in northern British Columbia admits he was involved in two of the killings, but he told his trial Tuesday that he didn't act alone.

Cody Legebokoff, 24, who is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, took the stand in his own defence more than three months after his trial began in Prince George.

He told a jury he was "involved" in the murders of Jill Stacey Stuchenko, 35, whose body was found in a Prince George gravel pit in October 2009, and Cynthia Frances Maas, 35, whose body was found in a park in the city 12 months later.

But Legebokoff said three other people were also involved. He refused to provide their names, instead referring to them only as X, Y and Z.

Legebokoff is also charged with the murders of Loren Donn Leslie, the partially blind 15 year old girl whose body was found near a gravel pit off a remote logging road in November 2010, and Natasha Lynn Montgomery, 23, who disappeared in September 2010 and who has never been found.

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Legebokoff told the jury he stands to receive a significant amount of prison time, and he did not want to go there with the reputation as a "rat."

"It's just not in the cards," Legebokoff said.

Under questioning from his defence lawyer, Legebokoff described how he met Stuchenko. He told the jury Stuchenko's murder was X's idea.

Legebokoff described X as a drug dealer who introduced him to cocaine. He said he met X at a party and soon became a regular customer.

By the fall of 2009, Legebokoff was living in a house in Prince George with some friends from his hometown of Fort St. James.

On the Saturday of the Thanksgiving long weekend, and with his housemates away in Fort St. James, Legebokoff said he invited X over for a party. He said X showed up with five others in tow, including Stuchenko and Y.

Legebokoff testified that the group sat on a couch, a love seat and a futon passing around powdered cocaine on a CD case.

He said he noticed that Stuchenko seemed kind of alone, so he moved over to sit next to her and chat.

"She wasn't an ugly person or an ugly woman, so I figured I'd try my luck and sit next to her and start talking to her," Legebokoff said.

He told the court eventually they "just started talking sexy towards one another" and soon after went into his bedroom to have sex.

"(It was) just a mutual decision and I don't know if she'd seen me as some future sugar daddy type deal," Legebokoff said. "I did not know she was a prostitute at that time."

The court has heard Stuchenko was found with cuts to her anus. Legebokoff said he did not remember having anal sex with her, but he also said he was intoxicated.

"I was not out of it by any means, I certainly was intoxicated," Legebokoff said.

Legebokoff told the court he and Stuchenko then went back out to the basement living room to join the party. While Stuchenko returned to a love seat, Legebokoff said he went over to a futon where the cocaine was being passed around to have a snort.

Legebokoff said four of the visitors left just after midnight, leaving X, Y, Stuchenko and Legebokoff in the house.

About a half hour later, Legebokoff said he and Y went into his bedroom to smoke a cigarette.

He said X came in soon after and told them Stuchenko was going to be killed because she owed a lot of money.

"As X said it, they were both sort of looking at me and I had made the decision to — there was a pipe sitting on my toolbox next to my bed and I gave that to X and he took it and all he did was look at me and nod," Legebokoff said.

Legebokoff was arrested in November 2010 and charged with one count of first-degree murder. Three additional murder charges were added in October 2011, when Legebokoff was 21 years old.

He has pleaded not guilty.