Jeffrey Salomonie burned the shoes he wore the night he killed Daisy Curley
Accused maintains he can't remember striking victim with fists and hockey stick
Jeffrey Salomonie burned the pair of shoes he wore the night he killed Daisy Curley and recalled in a police interview she was in pain when the two had sex, an Iqaluit court heard Wednesday.
In video excerpts from a 2011 interview between Salomonie and RCMP officers played by Crown prosecutor Doug Garson during his cross examination of the accused, Salomonie told police he had burned his shoes by a fishing spot he frequents near his hometown of Cape Dorset.
Salomonie has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the May 2009 death of the 33-year-old Iqaluit woman.
The Crown and defence agree Salomonie killed Curley by hitting her in the face with his fists and striking her with a hockey stick after a night of drinking, something Salomonie repeatedly said on Wednesday he doesn't remember.
At the beginning of his trial, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, but Crown prosecutors didn't accept the plea and proceeded on the murder charge.
Night of drinking
One night in May 2009, Salomonie spent the evening at an Iqaluit bar drinking with Curley before the two went to his nearby hotel room. The Cape Dorset man was in Iqaluit for a medical appointment.
The two had another drink in his hotel room before going to her home.
Salomonie said he remembers taking a taxi with her to her house, pouring a drink of vodka and kissing her.
During his cross examination, Garson questioned Salomonie over how much alcohol he consumed that night, pointing out discrepancies between his testimony in court and what he told police years earlier.
In that police interview, he had said he drank between seven or eight cans of beer, less than the 10 to 12 beers he told the court he consumed, along with two or three mixed vodka drinks.
What happened next, Salomonie maintains, he can't remember.
At some point he had sex with Curley and delivered the fatal blows. When it happened is unclear, and Salomonie said he can't recall either the sex or the assault.
Wiped shoes in kitchen
But during a police interview in Iqaluit following his arrest in June 2011, nearly two years after Curley died, he told police he had sex with her after waking up from a blackout. When asked if he thought Curley was hurt or not hurt when he had sex with her, Salomonie said she was.
In court, Garson suggested to Salomonie it was clear Curley did not want to have sex with him, which in turn, enraged him to the point of striking her, eventually killing the woman.
"I don't remember, and that's the truth," Salomonie replied.
He said that after waking up, he does remember seeing blood, wiping his shoes in the kitchen – the same pair of shoes he later destroyed near his home in Cape Dorset – and walking back to his hotel.
The trial will resume next Tuesday with closing arguments.
Justice Neil Sharkey is expected to deliver his decision the following week.