CCTV footage of victim's final moments played in courtroom as Bay Roberts murder trial continues

The courtroom at the murder trial of Terry Cole, Matthew Kavanagh and Stephanie Noftall spent a good part of the day in silence Monday, Oct. 19, as the Crown played CCTV footage of victim Michael Fillier’s last moments alive.

In the gallery, Fillier’s family members viewed the footage on screens arranged for the accused and defence lawyers in front of them, some leaning forward to get a better view when the video showed a man pumping petrol in a blue Chevrolet Colorado at a Bay Roberts gas station, then walking towards the attached convenience store.

“It’s Michael,” one of Fillier’s loved ones whispered to the others around her.

Their quiet cries were the only sound in the room as the video continued to play, showing 42-year-old Fillier of Spaniard’s Bay perusing the chip aisle, choosing some snacks and standing in line at the check-out to pay.

He then returned to the truck, driving around the gas pumps and parking at the far end of the parking lot, staying there for about an hour as darkness turned to early morning light and traffic in the area grew busier.

Prosecutor Colin Sheppard played different video clips from that same hour, from different angles outside the service station and Tim Horton’s restaurant, located together on L.T. Stick Drive in Bay Roberts.

On Tuesday, he’ll continue with more CCTV clips, which are expected to show two people in a gray Honda Civic arriving at the parking lot to join the truck.

In his opening trial remarks last week, Sheppard said he and fellow prosecutor Alex Marshall plan to prove Noftall was in the truck with Fillier outside the gas station the morning of Sept. 30, 2024, and that Cole and Kavanagh were in the Civic that joined them.

The Crown says Cole and Kavanagh got into the truck and stayed there for about 10 minutes before the two vehicles left the parking lot and travelled together to nearby Country Road, where, 11 minutes later, the truck was found burning with Fillier’s body inside.

So far, the court has heard from police officers and a forensic anthropologist who were first on the scene, and from witnesses in the Country Road area that morning. One man, a heavy equipment operator, was the first to notice smoke and drove in the road to investigate, calling police when he discovered the burning vehicle.

He said he saw a gray Civic with a loud exhaust coming out of the area.

Medical examiner Dr. Chris Hough, who conducted Fillier’s autopsy, told the court Fillier had been strangled to death before the truck fire.

A former couple from Upper Island Cove individually testified that they had given their gray Civic to their friend Kavanagh the day before Fillier was killed, with the plan that he would repair the exhaust and return it to them.

Kavanagh never returned the car, and they couldn’t reach him when they tried calling, the man and woman said. The next time they heard about their vehicle was when the RCMP let them know it was involved in a murder investigation.

On cross-examination, defence lawyer Stephen Orr — who represents Kavanagh, along with co-counsel Iain Hollett — questioned the two witnesses about whether they had given the car to Kavanagh to keep. They both said no.

The woman said they hadn’t called police to report the missing vehicle because only a day had passed and they had given Kavanagh the keys with no set timeline to finish the repairs.

They said police had asked them if they wanted the car back, and they both said no, since it had reportedly been involved in a murder.

Cole, Kavanagh and Noftall have each pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and committing an indignity to a human body.