Hart had working cellphone when daughters died, jury told

The jury at a Newfoundland Supreme Court murder trial was told Thursday that Nelson Hart owned a cellphone that was working the week his twin daughters drowned.

Hart,on trial for two counts of first-degree murder in the August 2002 drowning deaths ofhis daughters,had told police he did not phone for help the day the girls died because there were no minutes left on his cellphone.

At court in Gander Thursday, Pat Kearney, an area manager for Aliant, testified no calls were made on the phone on Aug. 4, 2002, the day of the drownings.

However, Kearney testified, Aliant's records show three calls were made on the phone the next day.

The jury was also told Thursday about a second cellphone thathad beenin the glove compartment of Hart's car.

Hart had found it in a park the day before the drownings occurred.

Nick Freake, a sheriff's office employee to whom the cellphone had been assigned, testified that the phone was working.

Court previously heard that Hart gave police different accounts of what happened the day his daughters Karen and Krista died. He first explained he had left the scene to get help, and later changed his story to say he had had an epileptic seizure.

Trial resumes Monday

Hart had also told police he was groggy after the seizure and that he never thought to use his phone when he left to get help for his daughters, who would haveturned eight this week if they had lived.

Proceedings for the week have ended, with the trial scheduled tocontinue Monday.

Included in the evidence that has yet to be presented are covertly recorded videotapes of Hart speaking with undercover officers.

The tapes, which the Crown described last week, were recorded after the RCMP obtained a judge's permission to record Hart without his knowledge.

Hart believed the undercover officers were members of a criminal organization with roots in Montreal. The Crown has told the jury that Hart confessed to killing his daughters while speaking with undercover officers, although the defence says Hart made the confession under coercion.

On Wednesday, court was told the undercover operation cost about $413,000.