Bay Roberts murder victim was strangled before truck he was driving was set alight, Crown tells jury

Eleven minutes.

A short period of time, prosecutor Colin Sheppard told jurors in John’s Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026 but one important to the case before it.

Eleven minutes was the amount of time the blue Chevy truck Michael Fillier, 42, was driving was missing from CCTV footage in the Bay Roberts area before it was found ablaze on a dirt road, with him inside.

Fillier was strangled to death before the truck was set alight, Sheppard said, alleging the evidence will show Terry Cole, Matthew Kavanagh and Stephanie Noftall were responsible.

Each of the accused has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and committing an indignity to a human body.

After 12 jurors and two alternates were chosen at Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Tuesday morning, the trial of Cole, Kavanagh and Noftall got underway in the afternoon before Justice Irene Muzychka, with Sheppard delivering his opening remarks.

The jury will see CCTV footage from a Bay Roberts gas station, the prosecutor said, showing Fillier driving a friend’s blue truck and pulling up to a pump, with Noftall as his passenger. He paid for gas, then drove around to the back of the building.

Sheppard said the footage will show a gray Honda Civic arriving an hour later with Kavanagh and Cole aboard, parking next to the truck. The two men got into the pickup’s back seat and the vehicles stay parked for about 10 minutes, before the truck leaves and the car follows it, in the direction of Country Road.

Eleven minutes later, a local resident — who will be the first witness to testify — discovered the truck ablaze on the road and took photos of it, Sheppard said. Fillier was inside in the vehicle, face down over the console, a cord wrapped three times around his neck and several times around the post of the driver’s seat headrest.

The medical examiner who conducted Fillier’s autopsy will testify he died of ligature strangulation, Sheppard said.

Sheppard gave the jury an overview of the other witnesses he plans to call over the next two weeks, including police officers, a forensic anthropologist, the gas station clerk and others.

A man and woman who knew Kavanagh will testify he had their gray Honda Civic to repair, and never brought it back.

Justin King, a Western Bay man currently in jail for a series of break-ins and thefts in Conception Bay North, will testify that Kavanagh, accompanied by Noftall, traded him a gray Civic for a Chevy Cruze the same day Fillier was killed.

An RCMP officer will testify she found a broken-down Cruze on the side of the road near Clarenville.

Acquaintances of the three accused will testify about their whereabouts and activities the night before and the days after Fillier’s body was located, including travelling to a cabin near Clarenville and staying there for two nights.

Police officers will tell the court about arresting Cole, Kavanagh and Noftall at a house in Harbour Grace, and the jury will hear their recorded statements. Cole’s is five hours long, Sheppard said.

“What I just said is not evidence, but rather an overview of the evidence I propose and expect to call, as I cannot say with certainty what the witnesses will say,” the prosecutor told the jurors, asking them to remain impartial until the end of trial.

“Please, now give your utmost attention to your evidence as it unfolds,” he concluded. “This decision will rest in your hands alone.”

Cole is represented by lawyers Jason Edwards and Courtney Mills; Kavanagh by Iain Hollett and Stephen Orr, and Noftall by Jon Noonan and Trevor Murphy.

The trial is scheduled to last up to eight weeks.