Photo: Contributed

This home on Collins Road in Cache Creek was the scene of a deadly shooting on Jan. 14, 2019.

Gaping holes in the story of the Crown’s star witness have led to the acquittal of a Kamloops-area man charged with second-degree murder in relation to a deadly 2019 shooting — the verdict prompting some in the jam-packed courtroom to break out in applause.

Corey Harkness, 37, was found not guilty on Tuesday. He stood trial last year on allegations he fatally shot Brock Ledoux inside a home in Cache Creek more than six years ago.

In acquitting Harkness, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker said the wild inconsistencies in the testimony of Terri Fawcett, the only eyewitness to testify, were too much to overlook.

“To say Ms. Fawcett gave confusing and contradictory evidence would be an understatement,” the judge said.

"While I have no doubt Ms. Fawcett believes she saw Mr. Harkness shoot her friend Brock Ledoux, I am unable to rely on her evidence at all.”

Ledoux was killed on Jan. 14, 2019, inside a home on Collins Road in Cache Creek, shot once in the chest at close range with a shotgun that was never found by police.

He was looking to party after having recently been released from a halfway house as part of a federal prison sentence, on the hunt for booze, drugs and women.

Fawcett drove Ledoux and Harkness to the Collins Road home in an attempt to have Harkness help Ledoux score drugs, and she said she watched the shooting through a window from the street.

She was the only witness to point the finger at Harkness.

Belief not enough

Fawcett was a problematic witness for the prosecution. She admitted on the stand to “embellishing” and “exaggerating” parts of her story, and to sometimes “talking out my butt.”

After initially telling a 911 dispatcher she had not seen the shooting, Fawcett changed her story to say she could see the front of Harkness, his hands, his pockets and the gun when the fatal shot was fired. She described hearing a bang and seeing a flash.

A lot of what she said did not make sense when compared to other evidence, or to the layout of the Collins Drive property. Crown prosecutor Bernie Caffaro chalked that up to differences in perspective, but defence lawyer Iain Currie zeroed in on it.

Currie used police measurements and crime scene photos to suggest Fawcett could not possibly have seen what she said she saw from her vantage point on the street.

In the end, Ker said it would be “unsafe” to rely on anything Fawcett said.

“The most that can be taken from Ms. Fawcett’s evidence is that she believes that it was Mr. Harkness who shot Mr. Ledoux — and while it might be Mr. Harkness who shot Mr. Ledoux, equally, it might not,” she said.

"As the lawyers in this courtroom know and the members of the public in this gallery need to understand, a belief that Mr. Harkness was the shooter is insufficient."

The acquittal prompted some of Harkness' supporters in the gallery to break out in applause.

The unknown man

If not Harkness, then who? Another possible shooter was identified in court as “the unknown man.”

Fawcett’s placement of Harkness, Ledoux and the unknown man in her testimony, combined with the evidence of the forensic pathologist, was cited by Ker in her decision as “raising the reasonable possibility that Mr. Harkness might not have been the shooter.”

According to her evidence, the unknown man, not Harkness, was standing approximately where the forensic pathologist testified the shot would have come from.

Court heard another man, Jesse McCormick, lived in the Collins Road home and was arrested about an hour after Ledoux was killed. A swab taken from the left side of his face following that arrest tested positive for trace gunshot residue, which a police expert said likely meant he either fired the gun or was nearby when it happened.

McCormick has not been charged in relation to the incident and was not called as a witness at Harkness’ trial.

'A long time to suffer'

Defence lawyer Sheldon Tate, who represented Harkness, questioned why the Crown relied on such fragile evidence.

“Six years and three months is a long time to suffer being accused of murder,” he told Castanet following the verdict.

“In my opinion, he should not have been charged in the first place, given that the forensic evidence at the scene essentially excluded Mr. Harkness from being the man who shot Brock Ledoux."

Tate also pointed to the evidence of an RCMP blood-spatter expert, who testified as a defence witness after the Crown chose not to call him.

“Why the Crown failed to call him is a question for which answers were not provided before the trial by Crown, nor since,” he said.

“But for the effective cross-examination of Crown’s star eyewitness and the blood-spatter report, Mr. Harkness may have been wrongfully convicted.”