Accused killer Christopher Watcheston found graphic photos of his victim "disturbing" and covered his eyes when shown them by homicide police, court heard Thursday.
"He said he was very stressed over events of the last week," Tim Macdonald, a paramedic at the city police arrest processing unit, told Crown prosecutor Christine Rideout of his visit with Watcheston in January 2008.
"He said he had a lot of serious charges against him. He had just finished talking to detectives and he was concerned about the photos. He just said they were photos nobody should see. . . . He said they were disturbing to him."
Watcheston, 24, has admitted to sexually assaulting and killing Arcelie Laoagan, 41, but his lawyers will present psychiatric evidence next week in an attempt to reduce his first-degree murder charge.
Macdonald said Watcheston said he told police he didn't want to co-operate, so he put his hands up around his eyes so he didn't have to see the photos.
The paramedic said Watcheston indicated he hadn't been sleeping much for the previous week and had been drinking six or seven beers a day, because the crime reminded him of when his mother was murdered when he was in Grade 9.
Macdonald said Watcheston was not acting paranoid or angry, was very co-operative, cognitive of what was going on, and was not suicidal.
The suspect also denied having taken any drugs -- prescription or illicit -- in the previous week.
Earlier, the forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy on the victim's body testified Laoagan died from a severe blow to the head.
"This woman died as a result of a head injury -- blunt cranial trauma," said Dr. Graeme Dowling, Alberta's chief medical examiner.
"There was enough blunt force trauma to the head that the brain has literally shut down, stopped working, and death has occurred."
Laoagan, a mother of five who had moved to Canada from the Philippines in 2004, was raped then slain as she walked home from work late on Jan. 18, 2008.
She had been followed from where she boarded the C-Train at the 8th Street S.W. station downtown to where she disembarked at Franklin station in the northeast, then attacked on a pathway between the station and Grace Baptist Church.
Laoagan was found initially about 12:30 a.m. by a passerby, but it was not reported until after a second person discovered her at 5:15 a.m.
Her face was covered in blood and barely recognizable, and her pants were down at her ankles.
Dowling told co-Crown prosecutor Gord Wong that Laoagan likely died within minutes of the head injury, which included a five-to eightcentimetre-long laceration to the scalp, but he could not accurately estimate the time.
"There was enough damage to the skin to cause separation from the skull, but not enough to fracture the skull," he said.
"That's not a minimal amount of force."
He also noted she sustained other serious injuries, including a fractured upper jaw, a broken bone in her right cheek, a broken nose, a broken incisor tooth, a fractured hyoid bone, which protects the voice box, and such extensive damage to her left eye that caused it to be swelled shut.
There were also numerous other cuts, scrapes and bruises to her head, neck, arms, legs and genitals, said Dowling.
When asked by Wong if the separate injuries to the head could have been caused by more than one blow, Dowling said it was likely.
Based on the nature of the injuries, the doctor added, there may have been several blows by the perpetrator.
Dowling agreed it was possible some of her injuries could have been caused by a fist, but more likely it was a hard object such as boots or contact with a hard surface such as the ground.
As for her fractured upper jaw, he said: "This is a break that is through and through, taking quite a considerable force to do that. The upper jaw is separated from the bone it was attached to.
"I'm not certain if you could generate enough force with a fist to break an upper jaw," added Dowling.
Under cross-examination, Dowling told defence lawyer Alain Hepner he could not tell the order of the blows or be sure of exactly how long it took before the victim died.
The trial before Court of Queen's Bench Justice Kristine Eidsvik continues today.
dslade@theherald.canwest.com
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