Bulatci gave details of Mountie shooting, associates testify
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | 11:07 AM MT
CBC News
Two Edmonton men told a Yellowknife jury this week that Emrah Bulatci, who is accused of gunning down an RCMP officer in Hay River, N.W.T., gave them a detailed account of the shooting.
Bulatci, 25, has been on trial since Oct. 21 for first-degree murder in the death of Const. Christopher Worden, 30, in Hay River on Oct. 6, 2007.
Jurors were previously told that Bulatci was dealing drugs in Hay River at the time of the shooting. Police found and arrested Bulatci in an Edmonton home six days after the shooting.
On Tuesday, the jury heard from Keshane Walters, who said he supplied the three or four ounces of cocaine that Bulatci sold in Hay River.
Walters said that shortly after the shooting, Bulatci told him he initially fired at Worden's police radio, then Worden lunged at Bulatci and grabbed him.
According to Walters, Bulatci said he then reached up and pointed his gun blindly behind his head and fired two more shots.
Fled police search
Walters's testimony is similar to that of Jared Nagle, who appeared in court Monday. Nagle, 25, is one of two men who said they accompanied Bulatci to Hay River to sell crack cocaine out of a house at 55 Woodland Drive.
Nagle testified that in the early morning hours of Oct. 6, Bulatci was about to enter a taxi that Nagle was already in when Worden ordered Bulatci to put his hands on the trunk of the cab for a search.
Nagle told the jury that he watched as Bulatci, fearing that Worden's pat-down would reveal he was carrying a gun, suddenly fled across the street.
Nagle said he lost sight of Worden and Bulatci when the officer chased Bulatci to an area behind an apartment building, but he then heard two gunshots, then a five-second pause, followed by another one or two shots.
It was on the day after the shooting, when Bulatci met Nagle back in Edmonton, that Bulatci told him he fired two shots at Worden — which failed to stop the officer — then fired blindly behind his head to escape Worden's grasp.
Deal with police
But during her cross-examination of Nagle on Tuesday, Bulatci's lawyer, Laura Stevens, suggested he was testifying against Bulatci in an attempt to avoid jail time.
Nagle is charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact for putting Bulatci up in the West Edmonton house he was living in.
Crown prosecutor John Cliffe presented the court with a letter showing that Nagle has struck a deal with an RCMP officer investigating Worden's death.
Under the deal, should Nagle be convicted and sentenced on the accessory charge, the officer has agreed to testify about how much Nagle co-operated in the Bulatci investigation.
The court also heard on Tuesday from RCMP Sgt. Randall Rechner, who arrested Bulatci after he was captured in Edmonton.
Rechner told the jury that he took Bulatci to the RCMP cells at the detachment in Sherwood Park. However, he said even he did not find out until later that an undercover RCMP officer had been put in the same cell as Bulatci.
That undercover officer, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, is expected to testify on Wednesday about what Bulatci told him.
