From ProQuest. The Vancouver Sun, 19 Jan 89, page A9.
VICTORIA - Shortly after he was committed to stand trial for first-degree murder, Scott MacKay attempted to recruit witnesses willing to discredit the Crown's case against him, a jury was told Wednesday.
"Look, I know I did it, but it's my life," MacKay allegedly told fellow inmates at Wilkinson Road Prison. "You've got to help me."
Prosecutor Dennis Murray, opening the Crown's case against MacKay, told the jury he intends to call the inmates to attest to the accused's alleged admission.
MacKay, 26, has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Marguerite Telesford, 20, who went missing Jan. 18, 1987, while jogging near her Saanich home.
Murray said the Crown's case consists of evidence linking MacKay's pickup truck to the missing woman's woollen tuque, as well as testimony from the inmates and testimony from witnesses who say they heard shots.
The prosecutor said the Crown's theory is that MacKay, rebuffed when he accosted Telesford from his truck, ran the young woman down and then disposed of her body.
Stressing that his opening address isn't evidence, Murray told the B.C. Supreme Court jury and Justice David Hinds the story began when Telesford, a black woman who was born in Tobago, went for her customary Sunday morning run.
Because it was drizzling, she donned a blue woollen tuque before starting on her run in the vicinity of Mount Douglas Park at about 7:15 a.m.
When Telesford failed to return, her foster parents contacted police, who conducted a search along the route she usually ran.
Murray told the jury police eventually located a series of bloodstains on the roadway. Nearby, they found a pair of ear-muffs, one showing signs of human blood, and the spent casing from a shotgun shell.
Despite a massive search of the area, Telesford was never seen again.
Saying there is evidence MacKay and Telesford at one time both worked for the same Victoria bus company, Murray told the jury they will be asked to infer the accused therefore knew the woman, or at least had seen her.
The prosecutor said police seized MacKay's truck Feb. 27, 1987. During a search of the vehicle, they found a pompon from a blue woollen tuque wedged between the crossbars of the chassis.
Forensic scientists at the RCMP Crime Detection Laboratory in Vancouver said scalp hairs on the pom-pom was negroid hair, consistent with Telesford's hair and similar to hair found in the blood on the roadway.
"We say the pom-pom came off when the blue truck went over her," Murray told the jury. "This accused not only ran her down, but also shot her."
The prosecutor told the jury they also will hear evidence from another Wilkinson Road inmate, who will say he asked MacKay the location of Telesford's body.
Murray said the inmate will say MacKay replied: "I can't tell you where the body is because there is something with the body that will tie me to it."
