In a Barrie courtroom today, a pair of Ontario Provincial Police officers described arriving at the scene of a Midland stabbing that resulted in the death of Orillia native Christopher Forrester nine days before Christmas in 2021.
Monday's proceedings were part of the Crown’s evidence in the second-degree murder trial of Rick Patrick, who killed Forrester in what he claims was an act of self-defence.
“I lifted his shirt (and) saw a single stab wound,” testified Southern Georgian Bay OPP Det.-Const. Mike Gentle. “…(Forrester had) one single utterance that ‘I just wanted to talk to him.'"
Dressed in civilian clothes, wearing a crisp grey suit, Gentle testified in a matter-of-fact manner about trying to administer first aid to Forrester, who Gentle said at first attempted to flee the scene.
“He was in pain and agony, rolling from side to side as I tried to put pressure on the wound,” Gentle testified. “I could tell (that) he was in a lot of pain.”
Both Gentle and Const. Stefan Racine, who has since been promoted to staff sergeant, arrived on the scene, near Patrick’s residence on Galloway Boulevard in Midland, about a minute apart.
Once there, Gentle tended to Forrester, who was dying on the driveway, while Racine went to Patrick who was “waving frantically” while standing underneath a tree at the house next door.
The call was a “code zero,” which is the highest priority in the grading system the OPP uses to designate calls according to urgency.
Both officers arrived on scene around 10:20 pm.
Earlier on Monday, Imelda Concepcion testified through a Tagalog interpreter, the main dialect spoken by Filipinos, that she saw two men on the cold, windswept evening.
Though Concepcion testified she couldn’t provide much detail about what each man looked like, it was plain by her description that one was Forrester, the smaller and younger of the two, and the other was Patrick.
“When he saw me, he said ‘call the police, call the police,'” testified Concepcion, in reference to the second man, who had “white hair.”
Concepcion said the whole interaction she witnessed was less than 60 seconds, perhaps as little as 30 seconds, and took place about 10 p.m., though she wasn’t precise in her testimony about the exact time.
After being urged to call the police a second time by the white-haired man, Concepcion said the younger man struck a “teasing” tone in response to the older man’s pleas.
Alarmed at what she was witnessing and growing scared, she testified that she quickly ran away from the scene with her golden Labrador.
Concepcion was followed on the witness stand by Margaret Nicol, Forrester’s former neighbour on Viks Road in Midland.
The elderly woman testified of her generally favourable impression of her much younger neighbour, saying she often saw him tending to his garden on the property where he rented a trailer that was owned by the accused.
It is the Crown’s case that the relationship between Forrester and Patrick deteriorated because of various issues relating to their landlord-tenant arrangement.
From the stand, Nicol said she witnessed the accused driving on Viks Road and gesturing toward Forrester as he passed by the trailer.
“He would drive by several times a week,” Nicol testified. “I would see him (roll the) window down, fist pumping.”
Racine was the day’s final witness and, toward the end of his testimony, he described arresting Patrick on a charge of aggravated assault and placing him in the back of his police vehicle.
During the short trip back to the detachment, Patrick, unprompted, spoke at length about what had happened back on Galloway Boulevard, the officer told the court.
“He just kept talking and talking,” Racine testified. “I couldn’t stop him — (it was like) verbal diarrhea.”
Once back at the detachment, Racine and his colleagues were processing Patrick when a call came in.
“I learned that Christopher Forrester was pronounced dead at Georgian Bay hospital (in Midland),” testified Racine.
The time was 11:15 p.m., some 54 minutes after Racine and Gentle had arrived on the scene of the stabbing.
The trial before Superior Court Justice Clyde Smith continues Tuesday.
