Many unanswered questions as court waits for closing arguments in Maurice Johnson trial

When Jacinthe Johnson stepped away from the witness box as the final witness in her husband's trial in the death of 22-year-old Brady Francis, it became clear just how much the prosecution's case relies on circumstantial evidence.

No DNA was found to link the truck Maurice Johnson was driving with Francis no blood, tissue, hair or even fibres from the young man's clothing.

But perhaps the most confounding mysterynever explained during the trial was where Brady Francis' body was found.

During both his direct testimonyand under cross examination,RCMP collision reconstructionist Cpl. Michel Lanteigne was unable to determine how Francis could end up on the shoulder of the opposite side of the road from the lane Johnson was travelling in that night.

A reconstructionist called by the defence went further,saying where the body was found made no senseand appeared to defy physics.

Michael Wayne Reade of Moncton-based Forensic Reconstruction Specialists Inc. testified as a defence witness.

In questioning by defence lawyer Gilles Lemieux, Reade was shown pictures of a light-coloured GMC truck belonging to Johnson. Reade identified damage to the headlights, front licence plate where the top part was bent and on the grille on the passenger side.

"There is a crack in the grille and part of it is missing", he said.

Reade said if a pedestrian was struck on the passenger side, as the damage shows, the body would either go straight forward or to the right toward the ditch in this case. He said Francis' body was found on the west-bound lane, on the opposite side of where the damage suggests it should be.

"[The] evidence just does not match that scenario," he told the court.

He told the court he assumes the Johnson vehicle was travelling eastbound prior to the collision. If that were the case, then he's puzzled why debris and the body were found on the driver's side in the west-bound lane.

"It makes no sense," he told the court.

Reade also said there are no signs of the truck braking quickly or heavily. Because of this, if the truck did strike Francis, then it would have run him over and caused damage to the underside of the vehicle. Reade testified there was nothingfound on the underside of the truck to indicate this.

He also told the court there was no evidence that Francis's body had been run over by a vehicle. Reade testified that in his pedestrian injury analysis, he found no injuries that would be consistent with a body being run over by a vehicle.

No DNA evidence

Const. Ricky LeBlond was one of the RCMP officers who responded to a 911 call the morning after Brady Francis was found dead.

LeBlond said he didn't know who had called, but the address on Saint-Charles South Road was the home of the accused and he found Johnson's damaged pickup truck was parked next to the garage.

LeBlond testified the truck's GMC logo was missing, important because the court had already heard a GMC logo was found on the road near Francis's body.

LeBlond also said the truck's grille was broken and he saw blood on the vehicle. What would initially have seemed to be crucial evidence was declared irrelevant.

Defence lawyer Gilles Lemieux told the court that tests done on the blood sample by both the RCMP and the defence determined the sample does not match Brady Francis' DNA, a finding with which Crown prosecutor Pierre Gionet agreed.

Johnson's interview with police

When proceedings ended on Monday, the question of whether Maurice Johnson would take the stand himself was answered. He would not,leaving his only account, a four-hour videotaped interview with the RCMP three weeks after Brandy Francis was killed.

The court watched as Johnson told police he was drinking Pepsi the night Francis was killed and didn't consume any alcohol or drugs.

Johnson said his wife drank eight beers while they drove around in his pickup truck between around 3:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., tossing the empties along the way, but he was behind the wheel when he struck what he thought was a deer.

The officer noted other people reported seeing Francis walking along the road that night and questioned why Johnson did not. He suggested something was affecting his judgment.

Johnson repeatedly told the officer he wasn't drinking that day. Although he drank when he was younger, he drinks "almost never now," he said in French.

"I don't do drugs," he added.

Johnson said he and his wife were talking while he drove that night and he turned his head to look at her for a moment. When he turned back, there was a deer in front of his truck and he didn't have time to brake, he said.

He stopped and looked back, but didn't see anything, so he thought the animal had run off and they kept going, he said. "If I thought it had been a person, I would have stopped."

It was a version of events Cpl Nicholas Potvin appeared to doubt.

He told Johnson he was the only one who could "complete the puzzle of what really happened that night" and he pressed him to "do the right thing."

"You're a good person, Maurice, a hard worker, a family man, a father, a husband," he said. "Give closure to the [Francis] family."

"I saw what I saw," replied Johnson. "I did not see a person."

Francis's body was found 1.8 kilometres from Johnson's house.

Johnson told police he drove home, watched TV and went to bed around 11 p.m.

When it finally fell to Jacinthe Johnson to tell her story, it was in lockstep with her husband's.

She told the court her husband made a sudden move at the wheel and told her he'd hit a deer. Her account of what followed was the same a short stop, no sign of anything, and a plea to continue home because she didn't want to see a dead or injured deer.

The next morning she saw on social media that the police were looking for a GMC involved in an accident the night before.

Johnson testified that she and her husband went to the RCMP detachment in Richibucto twice but the doors were locked and there was no one there. They decided to call 911 and went back to the house, where the police met them shortly after.

She said the RCMP took their statements, then told her Brady Francis was dead.

At that time, a crowd of people had gathered outside the Johnson's property, so the police escorted Maurice and Jacinthe Johnson off their property.

Francis family has trouble following trial

Maurice Johnson elected to be tried in French by judge alone.

Brady Francis' family does not understand French and asked for simultaneous translation of the trial so they could understand what was being said during the proceedings.

But New Brunswick Justice Minister Andrea Anderson-Mason said in December 2018 that interpretation service would not be provided.

The family spent most of the trial in an overflow room in the courthouse that was set aside because of the anticipated large public turnout. A video feed of the trial was shown in the overflow room.

Although official translation was not provided, volunteers from the community stepped forward to do what they could to provide translation for the family and community.

Jessica Perley, Francis's mother,says that even with those volunteers, it was still tough to follow the proceedings without simultaneous translation.

"It's, it is hard. And it goes pretty fast sometimes." Perley says. "We're not getting the full translation.We're getting bits and parts and then we're piecing it together."

Final arguments

The trial is adjourned until February 7, 2020 when both the Crown and the defence will give their final arguments.

Justice LeBlanc said she will write her decision in the weeks following the final arguments.

LeBlanc told the court that her decision will be in French but she will be providing her decision in both languages so that both Johnson and Brady Francis' family can understand the reasons for her decision.

LeBlanc thanked the lawyers for their hard work as well as their cooperation throughout the trial.