'Pints of blood' on floor in Sandeson's apartment, teammate testifies

William Sandeson was rushing around his apartment trying to clean up "pints and pints of blood" the night Taylor Samson went missing, a former teammate of the accused killer testified at his trial in Halifax Thursday morning.

Justin Blades was on the Dalhousie University track team with Sandeson, who has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Samson, a fellow Dal student. Samson's body has never been found.

Blades told a Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury that he was planning to go to a party for the track team the night of Aug. 15, 2015. He dropped by the apartment of a friend, Pookiel McCabe, who lived across the hall from Sandeson.

Sandeson was in McCabe's apartment, and Blades was drinking a 1-litre bottle of red wine as the three men drank, smoked pot, and played video games together. At one point, a friend texted Blades and then went to the apartment to buy some weed from him.

Loud bang

Later, Blades and McCabe heard a loud bang that came from inside the building. Blades testified he jumped up to lock the door and then put his ear up to listen.

About a minute later, he heard a knock and a voice saying, "Hey, it's Will," Blades said.

He opened the door and Sandeson was outside. Sandeson didn't say anything, and then turned to go back inside his own apartment.

Blades said he followed Sandeson and saw a man with dark, curly hair slumped over at the kitchen table with blood "just pouring" out of him.

There was blood on the man's head and "pints and pints of blood on the floor," Blades told the court. The blood covered half the kitchen floor, he said, adding that there was no way Sandeson could have avoided stepping in it.

He also saw drugs and bloodstained money, he said. Sandeson was running around picking up the money, Blades testified.

'I've got to clean up'

Blades went back to McCabe's apartment, and later returned to Sandeson's apartment. The body was no longer there, Blades said, but there were bloody streak marks on the floor leading toward the bathroom.

Sandeson was talking gibberish and kept saying, "I've got to clean up," Blades said.

At one point, Sandeson asked Blades to bring a car around, but Blades said he refused.

He left, and after that went out to the party because he wanted to be around other people.

Blades said he returned to the apartment building the next morning looking for closure and noticed a very strong smell of cleaner. He saw Sandeson, who acted as though nothing was wrong.

'Felt my life was in danger'

Blades later travelled to Yarmouth to visit family. "I felt my life was in danger," he told the court.

Police found him there and spoke with him, but Blades told them he hadn't seen or heard anything. He told the court he was afraid to speak up right away because he had heard that organized crime might be involved. It wasn't until 14 months later, in October 2016, that he spoke with police again.

In the months following the incident, Blades testified, he replayed the scene in Sandeson's apartment over and over again in his head. He said felt like he had post-traumatic stress disorder, and couldn't escape gossip about the case even during simple trips to the grocery store.

"I've been carrying it around like the f--king plague," he said in emotional and expletive-laden testimony.

Under questioning from defence lawyer Eugene Tan, Blades said while memories can change over time, "when you see a horrific scene like that, that is burned into your head."

When news came out of Samson's disappearance, Blades saw the missing-person photo and thought Samson was the dead man he had seen in Sandeson's kitchen, he testified.

Unusual apparel

The court also heard from a co-worker of Sandeson's girlfriend. Chantale Comeau was a barista at the Starbucks on Spring Garden Road in Halifax. She worked there with Sandeson's girlfriend, Sonia Gashus, and the two often drove to work together.

Comeau said on the morning of Aug. 16, 2015, a few things were different. Sandeson was driving the Subaru hatchback instead of Gashus. Usually, the back seat was empty, but on that occasion, there were things there though she didn't remember what.

Even though it was a hot day, with the temperature rising to the high 20s, she said Sandeson was wearing a heavy coat and a hunter orange cap. Comeau testified that she asked him about his outfit, but he didn't answer.

Drugs in basement

The last person to testify before the trial adjourned for the weekend was Nicholas Rotta-Loria.

Rotta-Loria, a Dalhousie chemistry student completing his PhD, told the jury that he learned Samson was dead on Aug. 19, 2015. As he was discussing the news with his roommates, one of them, Sandeson's younger brother Adam, said he'd just gotten off the phone with his father, who told him Sandeson had just been charged with first-degree murder.

Rotta-Loria said another roommate then asked Adam Sandeson, "Should we show him what's in the basement?"

Adam Sandeson then took him to the basement of the house they shared on Chestnut Street. There he found a backpack, a small appliance box and a grocery bag.

Rotta-Loria said he put on surgical gloves and opened the backpack. Inside, he said he found freezer bags full of marijuana. When asked why he put on the gloves, Rotta-Loria told court he watched a lot of crime shows and knew better than to handle evidence with his bare hands.

The roommates agreed to sleep on the matter. In the morning, they called a lawyer who contacted police on their behalf. Rotta-Loria said police photographed everything in the basement and seized the dope.

The Crown maintains Samson was killed in a "drug rip" in which 20 pounds of marijuana was stolen.

Lawyers reflect

As the trial wrapped up for the weekend, lawyers on both sides reflected on the day of powerful testimony.

Tan said he's feeling "fairly good," despite testimony about a man seen bleeding to death in Sandeson's kitchen.

"That certainly is problematic," Tan said. "There is some testimony when you take it bit by bit then yes, it does sound somewhat damning, but there are some very big holes there."

Those holes, according to Tan, are that the witnesses didn't see what happened, that they heard other sounds after the gunshot, and that Blades concluded early on that he didn't think Sandeson was the shooter.

Tan said he would wait to hear the Crown's case before deciding whether Sandeson will testify.

Crown prosecutor Susan MacKay told reporters that the jury will have to balance Blades's statement about not believing Sandeson was the shooter with his later explanation for not initially coming forward to police.

"We had a lot of very significant and important evidence that came out today from somebody who was in a very good position to see what he said he saw and to hear what he said he heard."

The CBC's Blair Rhodes live bloggedfrom Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax on Thursday.