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After three weeks of evidence, the Crown has closed its case against a Halifax law school graduate accused in the violent death of his girlfriend, Kristin Johnston.
Nicholas Butcher, charged with second-degree murder, was arrested after the body of the Montreal-born yoga instructor was found in her Halifax-area home on March 26, 2016.
The Crown called its final witness to the stand Wednesday – an expert in digital forensics who analyzed a laptop found in Johnston’s home with a username of Kristin Johnston and found that it had been accessed hours before her death.
Blair MacLellan, who is self-employed but worked as a civilian for the RCMP’s tech crime unit at the time of the alleged murder, said Facebook messages were opened on the computer around 1:40 a.m. on March 26, 2016.
“We could see that those were actually clicked on and looked at,” MacLellan said of the messages, adding that the Facebook account had “cached credentials,” meaning it would have logged in automatically.
Friends have testified they were hanging out with Johnston at an apartment elsewhere during the time frame the laptop was accessed.
The 14-member Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury has heard Johnston and her friend Lisa Abramowicz were at the flat of another friend, Michael Belyea, when Butcher, 36, unexpectedly appeared in the doorway, much to their bewilderment.
Abramowicz testified that Johnston had only obtained Belyea’s address hours earlier, and had no idea how Butcher knew she was there. She said the three surmised that Butcher had looked at Johnston’s Facebook messages.
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