Hart described 'well-organized' murders, videotape shows

Nelson Hart drew a sketch for a supposed crime boss of the wharf where his twin three-year-old daughters drowned in August 2002, and then stood up to show howhe pushed them in the water.

A Newfoundland Supreme Court jury in Gander on Thursday was shown two videotapes, including a second in which Hart shows an undercover officer how his daughters wound upin Gander Lake.

The first tape showsameeting between Hart and a man he believed was the boss of a large criminal gang.

The boss was actually an undercover RCMP officer, as was every other member of the phoney gang. The operation led to two charges of first-degree murder against Hart.

The RCMP put togethera complicatedundercover operation because officers did not believe Hart's explanation of what happened in the August 2002 drownings of Karen and Krista Hart.

For months before that June 2005 meeting, which took place in a Montreal hotel room, Hartwas drawn into what he thought was a powerful gang.

The video recording shows Hart meeting the boss in the hotel room. Police officers involved in the operation, none of whom can be identified by court order, said Hart was excited about the meeting because it showed he was moving up in what he believed was the gang.

'I was having a rough day,' Hart says

In the recording, the officer playing the boss said he had been checking into Hart's background. He told Hart he was worried that there might be a new potential witness to the drowning of his daughters.

When pressed by the boss about what happened that day, Hart said, "I was having a rough day."

Hart then explained how his brother was working with child welfare officials to take custody of the twins. In earlier testimony, social workers testified they had made preparations to find new homes for the girls, but had earlier relented when Hart found more stable accommodations for the family.

The last home visit occurred just days before the girls died.

Concerned about losing children

In the tape recording played for the jury, Hart told the "crime boss" that there was no way he would let authorities take his children, and that was why he decided to kill the girls.

While sipping wine, Hart went stepby step through the moments leading up to the drownings.

Hart drew a sketch of the wharf at Gander Lake where he had taken the girls.

Then, the videotape showed, Hart stood up and demonstrated for the undercover officer how he pushed his daughters into the water, and then slowly drove back to his home in Gander to get his wife.

Hart tells the "boss" that the RCMP believed he had had an epileptic seizure just before the girls fell into the water. Hart says on the tape that he didn't think the girls suffered.

'It's pretty much a perfect murder.' It was pretty well-organized. —An exchange between an undercover RCMP officer and Nelson Hart in June 2005

He also told the boss he was happy to be earning money for the supposed gang, and that he spent about $2,500 on good headstones for his daughters' graves.

After a conversation that lasted more than two hours, the supposed crime boss complimented Hart by saying, "It's pretty much a perfect murder."

Hart replied, "It was pretty well-organized."

Second video shot at Gander Lake

In a second June 2005 video, recorded at Gander Lake, Hart is shown bringing an undercover officer to the spot where the girls died.

The video shows them arriving in a sports utility vehicle and walking to the edge of the wharf.

The officer said to Hart, "Say I'm the kids— just like this," as he crouched down.

The jury watched as Hart hip-checked the officer toward the lake, then quickly turned around to leave. On the tape, the officer laughed through the episode.

The officer then asked Hart how he lured his three-year-old daughters to the wharf.

Hart replied: "I said, 'Let's go see the fish.' "

The officer playing the gang member said, "Yeah, you're going to see the fishes up closely."

Two days after that re-enactment, the RCMP arrested Hart.

Barroom confession described earlier

Earlier this week, one of the officers involved in the undercover operation testified that Hart confessed to him in April 2005 in a Montreal bar thathe had killed his daughters. Hart described it to the man as "my secret."

The defence has maintained through the trial, which began more than two weeks ago, that Hart had been intimidated by what he believed to be a criminal gang, and made a false confession to tell his superiors what he believed they wanted to hear.

However, in testimony this week, an undercover officer told the jury that Hart was never forced to return phone calls from people he assumed were involved in the gang, nor accept assignments delivering goods and accepting payments.

Court has been told that Hart was paid about $15,000 in cash for jobs that undercover officers assigned to him.