'Bad feeling' caused Courtepatte trial witness to skip party

A friend of a slain 13-year-old girl told an Edmonton court that one of the accused asked her to go to a bush party on the same night Nina Courtepatte died, but she declined because she had "a bad feeling."

Michael Briscoe, 36, and Joseph Laboucan, 21, are on trial for the kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and first-degree murder of Courtepatte in April 2005.

In court Thursday, a 17-year-old girl said she was asked twice to go to a bush party, the second time by a group that included Joseph Laboucan. The witness can't be named due to a publication ban.

"I had a bad feeling about it. The look on Joe's face just didn't look right to me. He looked like he was going to do something he shouldn't."

'He told me that he killed somebody'

Later that night, one of the teenagers who would later be charged in Courtepatte's death showed up at her house at 3 a.m, his white T-shirt covered in blood,she testified.

"He told me that he killed somebody. I told him he was stupid. He was going to go to jail."

The young man, now 19,has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.

Under cross-examination, Laboucan's lawyer questioned thewitness's memory of the events, pointing out she wasn't contacted by police until a year later.

"Can you be certain at this point of what people said?" he said.

"Yes. It's quite hard to forget a conversation with someone when you find out they killed someone," she responded.

Courtepatte picked up at West Edmonton Mall

In previous testimony,a teenager who was with Courtepatte the night she died told the court that they were invited to bush party by a group of five people that included the two men on trial.

Courtepatte'sbruised and bloody body was found on the Edmonton Springs Golf Course in April 2005.

Briscoe and Laboucan are being tried before a judge alone in Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench. The trial is expected to last a month.

They are among five people charged with the girl's murder, but unlike the other three, they were adults at the time of her death.

A 19-year-old man has already pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Two young women, ages 17 and 19, are charged with kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and first-degree murder, but haven't yet come to trial. The trio can't be named under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.