Disturbing video of slain teen played during trial

Relativesof a 13-year-old girl gasped at a videotape played in an Edmonton court Monday, showing the teenager's badly bruised and bloody body on a golf course fairway, surrounded by patches of blood in the grass.

Michael Briscoe, 36, and Joseph Laboucan, 21, who are on trial for the kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and first-degree murder of Nina Courtepatte,stared straight ahead as the video was played.

The teenaged girl's body was discovered on Edmonton Springs Golf Course west of the city in April2005.

Courtepatte's family members gasped and sobbed while the videotape was playedon Monday,the first day of the trial. RCMP forensics specialist Cpl. SharronSmith testified, pointingout pliers, a cigarette butt and someloose change on the ground in the video.

Briscoe and Laboucan are being tried before a judge alone in Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench. The trial is expected to last a month.

For the last week and a half, thecase has been caught up in a voir dire. The judge has yet to rule on whether a videotaped police interrogation of Briscoe, along with a conversation between Briscoe and an undercover officer in his cell, will be entered as evidence.

An autopsy report was also entered as an exhibit in the trial,describing 15 deep cuts on the girl's head alone and various injuries to the rest of her body.

Briscoe and Laboucan are among five peoplecharged with the girl's murder, but unlike the other three,they wereadults at the time of her death.

A 19-year-old manhas already pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Two young women, ages 17 and 19,are charged with kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and first-degree murder, but haven't yet come to trial. The trio can't be named under theprovisions of the Youth Criminal JusticeAct.