Witness says he can 'possibly' put Marissa Shephard at the murder scene

Claude Leblanc says he woke up to his phone, with Devin Morningstar crying on the line in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 2015.  

Morningstar was asking for a ride, and he wanted it right away.

Leblanc was testifying Thursday at the trial of Marissa Shephard, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Baylee Wylie as well as arson with disregard for human life.

Moncton firefighters found the burned and battered body of the 18-year-old Wylie early on Dec. 17, 2015, when they responded to a call at a triplex on Sumac Street.

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Morningstar, a friend of Leblanc, was convicted in November 2016 of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.  

Leblanc told the Court of Queen's Bench in Moncton that he wasn't pleased to receive the early morning, December call from Morningstar.

"I had to be at work in two hours, I didn't want to be up that early," Leblanc said.

But he got up anyway, describing Morningstar as "like a brother," and went to Sumac Street to pick up his friend.

When Leblanc arrived, he was annoyed when two other people also got in the car. He later told police the two were "some dude and some chick — I don't know them."

The Crown, Annie St. Jacques, asked Leblanc if he could identify anyone in the courtroom who was in the car that night.

"Do you see Marissa here?"

"Possibly," Leblanc answered. He described the woman in his car as young-looking, possibly 18 or 19 years old, small and with blond hair.

In court, he described Shephard as "the girl sitting beside the officer over there" and wearing a black jacket and white shirt.

Shephard is currently brunette, but Leblanc said: "People gain weight in prison, some people go back to their natural hair colour in prison."  

When asked if he remembered whether the woman in his car wore makeup, he said, "I was too pissed off, I just wanted to go home."

That night, the woman and man brought bags and packages to his car, Leblanc said. The group drove to a gas station to buy cigarettes but once there they changed their mind and went to Morningstar's home instead.

Leblanc said he stayed in the car with Morningstar while the other two got out and started unloading their things from the trunk.

"Devin was trying to keep me calm. I was trying to fish information out of Devin."

When defence lawyer Gilles Lemieux asked why he was upset, Leblanc said it was because it was 4 a.m. and he had to be at work at Tim Hortons at 6 a.m.

Leblanc agreed that when he was interviewed by police later, he told them he did not recognize the woman. He also told police he thought he'd seen the man before at Morningstar's home. 

While at the police station, Leblanc looked through mugshots but did not identify either of the people that got into his car with Morningstar.

"You can describe what they were wearing, but two days later you couldn't identify them or pick them out of a lineup?" Lemieux asked.

"Correct, I was nervous," Leblanc replied.

Two members of the Moncton Fire Department also testified Thursday.

Jacques Ouellette said he was in the first truck at the the scene after the dispatch call went out around 4 a.m.

He said no flames were visible at 96 Sumac when he got there, but smoke was coming out of the bathroom window.

He and another firefighter entered the unit. The kitchen "was smoke-filled" and the main floor was "full of clutter."

Capt. Darrell Doucet testified he opened the back door on the main floor to ventilate the floor.

"That's when I noticed Mr. Wylie's feet sticking out from under a box spring."

Both firefighters testified they did not touch the body.

Lemieux needs to attend to another case on Friday. The trial will proceed on Monday afternoon.

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