The trial against a former financial advisor accused in the bombing death of a single mother entered its fourth week with testimony about the use of a metal pipe purchased by the accused.
The Crown is winding down its case.
Brian Malley is on trial in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench on first-degree murder charges.
Victoria Shachtay was killed on Nov. 25, 2011, when she opened a Christmas gift left on her doorstep. That gift disguised a bomb, which detonated as she opened it on her dining room table.
As Shachtay’s financial advisor, Malley was responsible for an investment worth more than $575,000 that Shachtay had received in a settlement.
Shachtay was paralyzed in a 2004 car crash and in 2007 she received her settlement.
That money, plus a loan valued at more than $200,000, were invested. But by April 2011, the money was gone.
Over a four-year period, Malley gave Shachtay more than $44,000 out of his own accounts, the last transaction was on Oct. 15, 2011.
The Crown alleges Malley killed Shachtay to cut his losses.
Testimony on Tuesday shed some light on the use of plastic sleeves and steel pipes around natural gas line work.
The questions centre around the claimed use of a steel nipple, pipe with threading on both ends, that was six-inches long and two-inches in diameter.
Malley claims to have purchased the pipe to cover a gas line at his mother-in-law’s house in Edmonton. A concrete pour was done there in October 2013.
The Crown alleges that the pipe was instead used in the construction of a bomb used in the murder of Shachtay.
Const. Joany Paradis toured Innisfail with the assistance of Wayne Stiglitz, a former colleague of Malley with Kodiak Homes, a home-building company in Innisfail.
They looked at the gas lines of 17 residences built by Kodiak Homes over a 15 year-period. All of them used PVC or plastic piping around the gas line for protection.
James Grant works with Somerville, a contractor used by ATCO to prep work for a gas line move. In May 2014, he was tasked with prepping the gas line move at Malley’s mother-in-law’s house.
When shown photos of the work done to the residence, Grant said it looked as though the concrete was deeper than seven inches. He uses a hilti-saw with a 14-inch diameter, meaning the maximum cut depth it has is seven inches. In this case, he would have had to use a sledgehammer and prybar to remove the concrete all the way to the dirt.
The trial resumes today in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench with the defence opening its case.
mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com