Murder trial hears of ‘shoe prints’ under Taggart’s balcony

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A Windsor police investigator testified at the Bhogal murder trial on Friday that “suspected shoe prints” were discovered on a vehicle parked under the balcony of Autumn Taggart’s apartment after her body was discovered on June 10, 2018.

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Sergeant. Jeff Taylor, who was a police officer in the department’s felony branch at the time, said he was taken away to assist in the investigation and that he and his partner went to the apartment building at 1382 University Ave. W. on 12 May. June “to investigate possible entry points.”

While standing under the apartment’s upper deck balcony, he said he checked the top of a van parked immediately below: “I noticed what I suspected was a shoe print.” He said he pointed it out to his partner, who later discovered another alleged shoe print on the top of the vehicle’s door frame.

Taylor was the last Crown witness to testify in the Superior Court of Justice trial of Jitesh Bhogal, 31, charged with sexually assaulting and killing Taggart, 31, in his bed while his son slept in an adjoining bedroom. . Friday was the end of four weeks of testimony from dozens of Crown witnesses and the presentation of more than 220 exhibits thus far.

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Taylor testified that he was the investigator assigned to extract data from Taggart’s laptop and the cell phone of his ex-partner, the father of his son, with whom he had been texting the night before alive. He also examined security video footage seized on June 10 from a Windsor McDonald’s from where, all 14 jurors heard, Bhogal bought a quantity of cocaine in the parking lot with the help of two merchants he had met that night.

Taylor testified that security footage showed Bhogal’s vehicle exiting that parking lot at College Avenue and Huron Church Road at 3:25 a.m. on June 10. The trial previously heard that the next stop was the parking lot at 1382 University Ave. W., which was the Taggart Apartment Building next to a crack house used by the two Bhogal partners. The last activity on Taggart’s laptop, the police officer said, was a YouTube video selected at 3:57 a.m.

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Taylor’s testimony continues Monday. The court heard earlier this week that the odds that the DNA recovered from the deceased’s body did not come from Jitesh Bhogal were greater than one in a billion.

Proceedings on Friday were halted after Judge Renee Pomerance received a jury note expressing concern about alleged words of support for Taggart’s relatives by a court security guard in the presence of jurors.

Pomerance described it as “inappropriate and unprofessional” conduct by a uniformed court staff member, and praised the jurors for acknowledging and raising their concerns.

“I must instruct you in no uncertain terms to ignore everything anyone says outside of this courtroom, in uniform or not,” said Pomerance. He also warned jurors that they would no longer enter Windsor downtown court through the main entrance used by attorneys and other court visitors.

“Your decision-making process should be based solely on what happens in this courtroom,” he advised the jury.

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Reference-windsorstar.com

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