04-27-2012, 04:30 PM
LondonFP - The first steps in the kidnapping of Victoria 'Tori' Stafford April 8, 2009 were caught on a surveillance video: an unknown woman walking up a Woodstock street with the eight-year-old girl.
Sixty-one witnesses and 185 exhibits later, the Crown finished its first-degree murder case against the woman's former boyfriend, Michael Rafferty, Thursday by stringing together several surveillance clips from that day.
Much like that first video, viewed repeatedly across Canada, the string of clips offered tantalizing clues but not necessarily conclusive proof of what happened to Tori.
OPP forensic video analyst Gerald Lanna had broken down each video clip into individual frames, more than 2,800 in total when they were strung together.
But the best he could conclude for jurors was that a car that drove into an Esso gas station 12 minutes before and just around the corner from the abduction was Rafferty's 2003 Honda Civic.
"To me I would have to say, that's our vehicle," said Lanna.
Lanna could not, however, confirm the vehicle seen on video driving three times on the same street and on the same day Tori was kidnapped -- the last time less than two minutes before Tori walked up the street -- was Rafferty's.
"Can you say it's the same car?" Rafferty's lawyer Dirk Derstine asked during a short, but testy exchange.
They have the same characteristics, Lanna repeated several times.
"We can go round and round the mulberry bush on this. Can you say it's the same car?" Derstine pressed.
"No, I can't. I can't say it's the same car," Lanna said.
If there was any emotional moment during an exhaustive and dry analysis that wrapped the Crowns' case, it came during the 20-minute presentation of the clips strung together.
For seven long minutes, jurors, family members, media and spectators watched in silence at a car sitting in the parking lot of the Home Depot in Guelph, caught on the store's video camera about 5 p.m. April 8.
Inside that car, jurors have heard, hidden on the back seat floor was Tori. During that segment, one of Tori's uncles glared across the courtroom at Rafferty.
The accused was busying writing notes, something he's done for the past four days. Jurors won't know until next Tuesday if Rafferty, or any other defence witness, will take the stand.
Rafferty, 31, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault causing bodily harm.
The woman spotted in the first surveillance video, Terri-Lynne McClintic, 21, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and received a life sentence in April 2010.
Her version of what happened to Tori has formed the basis of the Crown's case, despite one dramatic change. McClintic told police in 2009 Rafferty dealt the fatal hammer blows that killed Tori. But at Rafferty's trial, she testified she killed Tori.
Even so, her basic story has remained the same: on April 8, 2009, she lured Tori away after school under Rafferty's direction. She walked Tori to a parking lot where Rafferty was waiting with his car. Rafferty told her to cover up Tori with his black pea coat.
Rafferty drove to a Guelph Home Depot where he told her to buy a hammer and garbage bags, McClintic said. Rafferty then drove to a woodlot near Mount Forest and raped Tori. Rafferty directed the coverup of the crime and told her to throw her running shoes out the car window on a rural road, McClintic said. He then gave her a pair of his shoes to wear.
Surveillance from several Woodstock businesses showed Rafferty wearing a coat and shoes similar to the ones described by McClintic and seized by police.
Surveillance videos also show McClintic wearing running shoes similar to ones found on the side of a rural road south of Mount Forest.
In the Home Depot videos, the car appears similar to the 2003 Honda Civic owned by Rafferty.
But Lanna could only testify in each case the items in the video were similar to the items seized by police.
There were not enough unique features to prove the items in the videos were the actual items seized, he said.
Rafferty/McClintic surveillance video, part 1
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/raffe...84816.html
Rafferty/McClintic surveillance video, part 2
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/raffe...84866.html
Trial evidence: Day 29
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/raffe...84426.html
Sixty-one witnesses and 185 exhibits later, the Crown finished its first-degree murder case against the woman's former boyfriend, Michael Rafferty, Thursday by stringing together several surveillance clips from that day.
Much like that first video, viewed repeatedly across Canada, the string of clips offered tantalizing clues but not necessarily conclusive proof of what happened to Tori.
OPP forensic video analyst Gerald Lanna had broken down each video clip into individual frames, more than 2,800 in total when they were strung together.
But the best he could conclude for jurors was that a car that drove into an Esso gas station 12 minutes before and just around the corner from the abduction was Rafferty's 2003 Honda Civic.
"To me I would have to say, that's our vehicle," said Lanna.
Lanna could not, however, confirm the vehicle seen on video driving three times on the same street and on the same day Tori was kidnapped -- the last time less than two minutes before Tori walked up the street -- was Rafferty's.
"Can you say it's the same car?" Rafferty's lawyer Dirk Derstine asked during a short, but testy exchange.
They have the same characteristics, Lanna repeated several times.
"We can go round and round the mulberry bush on this. Can you say it's the same car?" Derstine pressed.
"No, I can't. I can't say it's the same car," Lanna said.
If there was any emotional moment during an exhaustive and dry analysis that wrapped the Crowns' case, it came during the 20-minute presentation of the clips strung together.
For seven long minutes, jurors, family members, media and spectators watched in silence at a car sitting in the parking lot of the Home Depot in Guelph, caught on the store's video camera about 5 p.m. April 8.
Inside that car, jurors have heard, hidden on the back seat floor was Tori. During that segment, one of Tori's uncles glared across the courtroom at Rafferty.
The accused was busying writing notes, something he's done for the past four days. Jurors won't know until next Tuesday if Rafferty, or any other defence witness, will take the stand.
Rafferty, 31, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault causing bodily harm.
The woman spotted in the first surveillance video, Terri-Lynne McClintic, 21, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and received a life sentence in April 2010.
Her version of what happened to Tori has formed the basis of the Crown's case, despite one dramatic change. McClintic told police in 2009 Rafferty dealt the fatal hammer blows that killed Tori. But at Rafferty's trial, she testified she killed Tori.
Even so, her basic story has remained the same: on April 8, 2009, she lured Tori away after school under Rafferty's direction. She walked Tori to a parking lot where Rafferty was waiting with his car. Rafferty told her to cover up Tori with his black pea coat.
Rafferty drove to a Guelph Home Depot where he told her to buy a hammer and garbage bags, McClintic said. Rafferty then drove to a woodlot near Mount Forest and raped Tori. Rafferty directed the coverup of the crime and told her to throw her running shoes out the car window on a rural road, McClintic said. He then gave her a pair of his shoes to wear.
Surveillance from several Woodstock businesses showed Rafferty wearing a coat and shoes similar to the ones described by McClintic and seized by police.
Surveillance videos also show McClintic wearing running shoes similar to ones found on the side of a rural road south of Mount Forest.
In the Home Depot videos, the car appears similar to the 2003 Honda Civic owned by Rafferty.
But Lanna could only testify in each case the items in the video were similar to the items seized by police.
There were not enough unique features to prove the items in the videos were the actual items seized, he said.
Rafferty/McClintic surveillance video, part 1
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/raffe...84816.html
Rafferty/McClintic surveillance video, part 2
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/raffe...84866.html
Trial evidence: Day 29
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/raffe...84426.html
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