The Crown is getting to the heart of its case against Michael Kelly as testimony from undercover officers began Thursday.
“Project Wolf” was an undercover OPP investigation against Kelly, who is now charged with first-degree murder in connection with the 2000 disappearance and death of his common-law spouse, Judi Thibault. Police hoped the operation would help investigators gather evidence from the 65-year-old man.
The court heard from OPP Det.-Sgt. Robert Debellefeuille.
He posed as a private investigator working on behalf of the Royal Bank of Canada to track down recipients of life-insurance policies.
After several phone conversations Debellefeuille, who was going by the alias Bobby, met with Kelly in a hotel room in Grand Prairie, Alta., in 2009.
A video of the meeting showed Kelly and Debellefeuille in the room discussing a supposed life-insurance policy from Judie Thibault that was to be paid to Kelly.
Kelly said during the meeting that he thought that matters of Thibault’s estate had been settled. He also asked Debellefeuille whether he had tried to contact other members of Thibault’s family instead.
“I’m just trying to put it behind me,” Kelly said to Debellefeuille.
Before Project Wolf was discussed, the court was shown a 38-minute interview with Kelly conducted by the OPP’s Martin Graham in 2006 at the Fredricton RCMP detachment.
Audio from the interview was so poor the jury members were given transcripts to help them follow along, but were cautioned by Superior Judge John Wright that the audio and video, and not the transcripts, was the evidence they were to examine.
The interview ends abruptly when Kelly gets up to leave after being asked why he called Thibault’s work twice – once on the day of her disappearance – to say she was sick. Kelly said he did call twice, but not on those days.
He then grabs his coat and hat and walks out of the room.
“You’re calling me a liar?” Kelly said.
“How can you do that Mike, I don’t understand?” Graham said from the door.
Graham said he was trying to shock Kelly into confessing or stimulate him into discussing the case later while being monitored.
Graham admitted that he lied to Kelly about knowing facts about the case – such as when Thibault died – which hasn’t been determined.
After the interview, Graham followed Kelly to his car where he began speaking aggressively to him.
“I kept repeating to him that he was a killer,” Graham said. “’you’re a killer, we’re going to catch you.’”
Kelly tried to get into his car but Graham stuck his leg in the door twice to try and stop him.
He then went back into the police station to grab photographs of Thibault before and after she died.
Graham said he put them on the windshield facing Kelly.
“’How could you taken her from this to this,’” Graham remembered saying.
Kelly didn’t respond and looked down at the ground, Graham said.
Kelly’s lawyer Gil Labine asked how Graham would expect an innocent person to react to the officer’s shock tactics.
Graham explained that there were a multitude of responses an officer could expect. Suspects questioned aggressively like Kelly was could display anything from no reaction to extreme distress.
Video and testimony from Project Wolf continues Friday.
