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Testimony from the grave

Videotaped statements from a man who has since died were presented at a trial of a man accused of arranging a murder in Red Deer in 2009.

Videotaped statements from a man who has since died were presented at a trial of a man accused of arranging a murder in Red Deer in 2009.

In the videotaped police interview, Darrell Phillips states he found a nine-mm gun in Gasoline Alley. The Red Deer area man said he found the gun while moving dirt to build an access road to a lot in the spring of 2009.

A hotel has since been built there.

Brandon Neil Prevey, 29, was shot and killed at about 3 a.m. on April 5, 2009, while sitting in a Jeep parked outside a home on Ibbotson Close in Red Deer.

Christopher Martin Fleig, 28, is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in relation to his alleged role in the killing.

The Crown’s theory is that Fleig and two others targeted a different man who drives the vehicle in which Prevey and a woman were seated.

Someone opened fire from a black car that was driving by, sending a hail of bullets through the driver’s side door and window of the Jeep.

The video interview was part of a voir dire, a trial within a trial, that was presented during the judge-alone trial. Justice Kirk Sisson will rule on whether information from the voir dire can be admitted as evidence at the trial.

“The (gun) popped out of nowhere,” said Phillips, who used a skid-steer loader to move piles of dirt on the lot. He said the black gun, which he thought could be an automatic, was found without an ammunition clip and had some rust.

Phillips said he showed the gun to Grant Price, owner of nearby Gasoline Alley Harley-Davidson, soon after it was found and contacted police to turn in the gun.

At the time of the interview, in April 2010 about a year after he found the gun, Phillips had cancer.

Fleig’s lawyer, Allan Fay, raised the question of whether RCMP Const. Marko Henezi, who interviewed Phillips, did anything to determine if Phillips was on medication at the time of the interview.

“I didn’t see anything that raised my flags,” said Henezi.

Fay also noted Phillips did not swear an oath to ensure the information he provided was accurate and reliable.

The voir dire continues today.

szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com