Bulatci plotted to quiet N.W.T. murder witness: recordings
Last Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009 | 7:06 PM MT
CBC News
Emrah Bulatci is escorted out of the Yellowknife courthouse during his trial, which began Oct. 21. (CBC)The Edmonton man accused of killing an RCMP officer in Hay River, N.W.T., in 2007 plotted to silence a witness afterward, a jury in Yellowknife heard Friday.
That revelation came from secret police recordings of conversations Emrah Bulatci, 25, had with his girlfriend and family members in jail, following the Oct. 6, 2007, shooting death of Const. Christopher Worden.
Worden, 30, was gunned down early that morning while he was responding to a call for assistance in Hay River, about 400 kilometres south of Yellowknife near the Alberta border.
Bulatci was arrested six days later in Edmonton and was charged with first-degree murder in Worden's death.
Earlier in the trial, which began Oct. 21 in Yellowknife, defence lawyers said Bulatci — who had tried unsuccessfully to plead guilty to manslaughter — did shoot Worden, but did not intend to kill the officer.
5 hours of secret recordings
On Friday, the 12 N.W.T. Supreme Court jurors heard eight excerpts from more than five hours of audio that police had secretly recorded of Bulatci's conversation at the North Slave Correctional Centre in Yellowknife after he was arrested.
In one conversation Bulatci had with his father in the Turkish language, Bulatci asked his father to help silence a Hay River taxi driver who had heard gunshots after he watched Worden chase Bulatci into a wooded area behind an apartment building.
"If that man doesn't show up, I'll win. I'll get out right away, in three or four months," Bulatci was quoted as saying to his father.
In another recording, Bulatci asked his girlfriend to get her father to help him "take care of" the cab driver.
The jury also heard Bulatci, in another clip, ask his girlfriend to get in touch with people to locate and get revenge on Justin Anderson, an Edmonton man who has previously testified that he and three other friends attacked and robbed Bulatci shortly after he had returned to the Alberta capital from Hay River.
Bulatci's infant daughter could be heard crying in the background during some of the audio clips played in court.
Boasted of elaborate arrest
Police also surreptitiously monitored Bulatci while he was in custody in Alberta, as an undercover RCMP officer shared a detachment cell in Sherwood Park with Bulatci for 26 hours after Bulatci was arrested.
The officer, who cannot be named under a publication ban, testified that Bulatci had boasted about police using helicopters and tanks to locate him in a West Edmonton home.
Bulatci also bragged that police had blocked off all of the West Edmonton area to arrest him, the officer said.
The undercover officer asked Bulatci about his bruises, and Bulatci replied, "That's what happens when you shoot a cop like that," according to the officer's testimony.
Bulatci is expected to testify late next week.
