The last thing David Woolfson remembers from March 1, 2010 was watching the St. Albert man accused of assaulting him wheel a bicycle into Woolfson’s Edmonton pawnshop.
Woolfson testified Wednesday his next memory is of waking up in the hospital.
“I didn't know what had been done to me. I didn't know I’d been injured,” Woolfson said.
Wednesday was the third day of the trial for Kenneth Angus Campbell, 59, of St. Albert on charges of aggravated assault, robbery and possession of a dangerous weapon in Court of Queen’s Bench in Edmonton.
The Crown alleges Campbell assaulted the 78-year-old Woolfson with an axe, nearly amputating his ear, and stole approximately $30,000 in jewelry.
Woolfson testified he’d first met Campbell in the weeks prior to the assault when Campbell pawned a generator at Woolfson’s A1 Trading Pawnshop. In the days following, Campbell visited the store on an almost daily basis.
“I suspected he was in my shop because he was stealing,” said Woolfson.
On March 1, 2010, Campbell visited the store twice. During the first visit he selected an axe from a display case and placed it on the counter, saying he was going to buy it but left without the axe. Woolfson returned the axe to its display shelf. Campbell returned later in the day asking why Woolfson had put the axe away. He retrieved the axe and again placed it on the counter.
Woolfson said he’d been planning on closing his store early because he had a function to attend. Campbell offered to help wheel inside several bicycles Woolfson displayed on the sidewalk.
After that, Woolfson said, he remembers nothing.
“And then I woke up in hospital.”
On waking, Woolfson told members of the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) the last person he remembered being in the store was the person who had pawned a generator. That information was relayed to Const. Jana Marshall of the EPS pawn detail, who conducted a search for the transaction in the Business Watch International database, where all pawnshop transactions are recorded.
The search yielded a recent transaction involving a generator at A1 Trading Pawnshop. The generator had been pawned by a Kenneth Angus Campbell of St. Albert.
Detectives with EPS’ robbery section discovered Campbell was wanted on outstanding warrants in an unrelated matter. In conjunction with the St. Albert RCMP detachment, Campbell was arrested late that same night at his Oakmont home and taken to the St. Albert detachment before he was transferred to EPS headquarters.
Upon searching Campbell, St. Albert RCMP Const. Robert Jackson testified he found some miscellaneous papers, a few loose keys and a cardboard sleeve used by coin collectors to protect coins. Jackson said Campbell tried, despite being warned to stop, to throw the papers and cardboard sleeve in the garbage. Campbell eventually did throw them in a garbage can and Jackson later retrieved them.
EPS robbery Det. Jason Rodberg testified one of the papers was a pawn ticket or receipt from A1 Trading Pawnshop in Edmonton.
Woolfson also told the court, upon examining photos taken of his shop on the day of the assault, that there appeared to be jewelry missing from the display case. He told Crown prosecutor Avril Inglis that he kept several trays in the case full of jewelry and replaced any pieces he sold with other items from his safe.
From the picture, Woolfson said there appeared to be three full trays of jewelry missing from the case.
“It looks empty. It would have more stock in it,” said Woolfson.
He said he also kept rare coins that people pawned at his shop in the safe.
The trial continues.
