St. Albert accused killer Beryl Musila's father was called to the stand to testify last week as the Crown is starting to paint a picture of what happened in the day after Ron Worsfold's murder.
It was day eight of the first-degree murder trial of Musila, 33, charged in the St. Albert senior’s July 7, 2017 death.
Crown prosecutors Patricia Hankinson and John Schmidt say Musila drugged, then stabbed and bludgeoned Worsfold to death—and then, after an interlude of beer, cocaine and sex with a neighbour, the next day hauled Worsfold’s body in a blue Rubbermaid tote around to a handful of places before abandoning it at a makeshift dumpsite in rural Parkland county.
On Tuesday, April 25, Beryl Musila pleded guilty to the charge of indecently interfering with Worsfold’s remains.
Jacob Musila testifies
The defendant’s father, Jacob Musila, was called as a witness for the prosecution on Thursday.
On Saturday, July 8, 2017, he responded to a call from his daughter.
“She had wanted a bin, she was moving out,” he testified.
Calgary came up in conversation as a possible destination, the elder Musila said.
“Initially, she was wanting to come for (the tote) herself,” he said. Then when she couldn’t get the transport, the elder Musila said, she asked him to bring it to her.
He said he called before leaving his Erin Ridge home to let her know she was on the way, so she could watch for him.
He didn’t bring the large tote inside the apartment, however.
“I placed it down on the pavement and stayed in the car,” he said. “She came and took it. We did not speak.”
He recognized the large duct-taped tote from the makeshift dumpsite in the Crown’s evidence photo as the same kind of large bins he had in his garage.
The garage sale
Alice Benson testified she was helping her son’s girlfriend hold a garage on Saturday, July 8, 2017, some eight miles west and six miles north of Morinville.
Around 3 p.m., it looked like business was picking up.
“Jeez, there’s a cab coming to our garage sale!” she remarked as the mini van cab from St. Albert taxi pulled up to the driveway.
A slim woman in dark pants or jeans and a lighter coloured T-shirt came up the drive. In court, Benson identified the taxi passenger as l Musila.
“Is Brent home?” Musila asked her.
“You mean Blair?” Benson responded.
Her son Blair was gone for the weekend. Benson asked for a name to tell him who stopped by.
“Beryl.”
Fellow garage sale host Lisa Hansen said Musila wanted to ask Blair for a favour.
“She was looking for a ride to Edmonton,” Lisa Hansen said.
They paid the taxi driver
Paul and Maureen Balchen testified individually.
Beryl had lived with their son common-law for several years, and had two children with him, the court heard.
Maureen Balchen was getting supper ready on Saturday, July 8, 2017, when Beryl Musila showed up at the door, accompanied by a taxi driver.
“Beryl didn’t have enough money to pay for the taxi. He had driven her from Morinville to Edmonton to get a U-Haul,” Ms. Balchen said.
She recounted what Musila had with her: several small boxes, three larger boxes, a Rubbermaid tote with silver duct tape securing the top to the bottom, a smaller tote, a turquoise knapsack, a black suitcase.
They paid the taxi driver and gave him extra money because Musila wanted to go a few places in St. Albert “for financial help, I believe,” Ms. Balchen said.
When Musila came back, she asked the Balchens to give her a ride to a friend’s place near Devon.
“We packed up all the gear in our garage into our truck, and we drive her over there,” Ms. Balchan said.
After dropping her off with her stuff, Ms. Balchen told Musila to call them if it didn’t work out. The Balchens left her there at the house.
‘Let’s call the police’
Yannick Leveille was living in the rural home. He described the post-parole party for Patrick Tanssem-Reid, with about a dozen or so people gathered for swimming and drinking and celebrating at the home at 51223 Range Road 264 in rural Parkland County, southwest of Edmonton.
“Rob (Rafters, Musila’s boyfriend of four months) came to me and asked me to open the garage door,” he said.
Musila arrived in a pickup truck with totes, boxes, and a black suitcase.
Leveille knew the driver dropping her off was related to the father of Musila’s two kids, he testified.
“I helped unload the belongings in the garage,” he recalled.
“I don’t recall (Musila) unloading, she was watching.”
The largest tote was about two feet 2 feet by 4 feet—heavy, and strapped around and around with duct tape.
“I couldn’t lift it by myself,” Leveille remembered.
The party continued.
When he woke up around 11 a.m. after a late night, everyone was gone from the house except him and Patrick Tanssem-Reid, Leveille testified.
The two went to a wooded spot on a trail on the property to move Musila’s tote, he said.
He was expecting to move the containers to a dump site the family used at one corner of the property, but they went down a different trail.
Tanssem-Reid grabbed one side, he grabbed the other, and they hoisted it up in the truck.
When they unloaded it, the effect of the torque on the plastic tote twisted it. When they set it down, “the lid opened a little bit. One of the corners kind of lifted open,” Leveille said.
He said he didn’t look in, but Patrick Tanssem-Reid saw something that made him “jump,” Leveille said.
“After that happened, what did you do?” asked Crown prosecutor John Schmidt.
“I told him, ‘Let’s go, let’s call the police … I told him to call the police, because it was for his own good,” he responded.
Leveille said they went straight back to the house.
“Patrick grabbed his phone and called the cops,” he said.
Musila then returned to the home with Rob Rafter and the host.
Musila then asked him for a ride, Levelier testified.
“She offered me $200 to give her a ride. I told her I couldn’t drive,” he said.
“Did she know the police had been contacted?” Schmidt asked.
“No,” Leveille said.
Amicus attorney Greg Worobec, appointed to ensure a fair trial in Justice Larry Ackerl’s Court of Kings Bench courtroom, but not to be Musila’s defence attorney, suggested to Leveille during cross-examination that Patrick told him about the contents before he went to help move Patrick move the tote.
“No,” Leveille responded. “We never thought it …would be like that.”
He identified evidence exhibit photos of the boxes and totes at the makeshift dump site as the belongings Musila had got help unloading into the garage the night before.
“That was her stuff. I don’t know how it got outside,” he said.
Testimony continues in the Court of King’s Bench before a jury of nine women, three men and two alternates. The trial is expected to last another four weeks. Court did not sit on Friday or Monday due to illnesses but the trial will proceed on Tuesday.
