Crown wants expert witness to support Greg Fertuck gravel pit admission during police interview

The Crown and defence spent Day 17 of Greg Fertuck's first-degree murder trial sparring over the credentials of a proposed expert witness.

The Crown said on Wednesday it wants former Telus Mobility investigator Bruce Funk qualified to give factual and opinion evidence on four areas around Greg's cellphone.

Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench Justice Richard Danyliuk agreed to a "qualification voir dire" —  a sort of trial within the trial — which would allow both sides to make their cases.

"We don't need the Tom Brady of cellphone tracking," prosecutor Cory Bliss said, referring to the famed football quarterback in defending Funk's qualifications.

Defence lawyer Mike Nolin countered the prosecution was "dressing up a pig, putting a whole bunch of makeup on it under the guise of expert evidence, to get that one opinion."

Fertruck is on trial in Saskatoon in connection with the death of his estranged wife, Sheree, who was last seen on Dec. 7, 2015. Her semi-truck was found at a gravel pit near Kenaston, Sask., the next day, but her body has never been found.

Fertuck has pleaded not guilty.

He admitted to police during a six-hour interrogation in October 2017 that he had gone to the gravel pit on Dec. 7, 2015.

Fertuck at first strenuously denied he had been at the gravel pit that day, but made the admission in the 2017 interview after RCMP Staff Sgt. Charles Lerat confronted him with evidence that linked his cellphone to a tower near the pit.

Bliss said the Crown wanted an expert witness to speak to that admission to offer "circumstantial evidence to support Fertuck's testimony on being at the gravel pit."

This is significant because Justice Danyliuk has not yet ruled whether the disclosure Fertuck gave police in the 2017 interview is admissable as evidence in his trial.

The prosecution's theory is that Greg shot his ex-wife twice during a confrontation at the gravel pit, where she worked, and then moved her body to another location in the country.

Bliss is seeking to qualify Funk to interpret cellphone records, analyze and map cell tower data, speak to tracking and locating cellphones, and provide technical evidence.

Nolin said all of Funk's information about Greg's cellphone and the towers around Kenaston has been given "third hand" by cellphone companies. As such, he may be qualified to present facts but he is not qualified to offer expert opinions on the material, Nolin argued.

Further, Nolin said Funk is not an electrical engineer and has no degree in computer science, and has no current professional memberships relevant to qualifying him to give expert testimony.

Funk said he is not biased to the Crown or the defence.

"I don't have any skin in the game. I just give the evidence," he said.

The trial, which began on Sept. 7, continues on Thursday, when Justice Danyliuk will rule on Funk's role in the trial.