A Saskatoon courtroom heard yet another alleged murder confession by Douglas Hales on Tuesday.
Hales is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of 25-year-old Daleen Bosse of Onion Lake Cree Nation who was last seen in May 2004.
Over the course of the trial, court has heard three different alleged confessions from Hales where he tells undercover RCMP officers he choked Bosse to death and burned her remains in a remote wooded area near Martensville.
In a Saskatoon police video taped on Aug. 10, 2008, shortly after Hales’ arrest for Bosse’s murder, Hales admits to officers that Bosse did die in his company on May 18, 2004 but he did not kill her.
Instead, Hales claims Bosse died from alcohol poisoning saying she stopped talking in mid-sentence, he could not feel a pulse and her body went cold.
Claiming he did not want to be blamed for her death, Hales says he then burned Bosse’s remains.
Court saw the remainder of the Aug. 10, 2008 police video on Tuesday where Hales’ story changes yet again.
The video shows officers continuing to pepper Hales with questions on what exactly happened the night Bosse died.
One officer says, “You know a body doesn’t go cold in five minutes, you know that.”
The officers then tell Hales an autopsy is going to be performed on Bosse’s remains in the coming days and they will be able to tell if she was strangled or not.
Hales then admits to the officers that he did strangle Bosse in moment of rage.
He says he was angered by the fact she laughed at him when he was unable to perform sexually.
“Everything was bottled up – I had no money, I was getting kicked out of my place,” he says. “I shouldn’t have taken it out on her. I should have gotten help.”
Earlier in the day, court also heard testimony from Mr. Big.
Mr. Big is the head of a fictitious criminal organization undercover RCMP officers used to track Hales from May to August 2008.
Defence lawyer Bob Hrycan accused the undercover officer of using techniques of confrontation and minimization in order to get an alleged murder confession out of Hales.
In the morning, the trial heard from Douglas Hales’ former roommate Sam Kerr.
Kerr, who attended high school with Hales in Warman, described him as a troubled young man of few words and not many friends.
He worked at Jax nightclub in the spring of 2004 and got Hales a job as a doorman there.
Kerr testified Hales brought Daleen Bosse back to the Sutherland trailer they were sharing on May 18, 2004.
He said he did not notice Bosse to be noticeably intoxicated but that she and Hales were smoking marijuana.
Kerr also said he was not aware that Hales had any prejudices against Aboriginal people and the two left the trailer after a short period of time.