THUNDER BAY — A Crown witness testified that a man, who is not the accused, admitted to her that he killed Charlie Finlayson.
Justin Coaster, 34, is charged with second-degree murder and criminal negligence causing bodily harm in relation to the death of 37-year-old Finlayson and the injury of another man.
Coaster pleaded not guilty to both charges on Monday and his trial continued on Tuesday at the Thunder Bay Courthouse.
Finlayson was found deceased, shot in the head, on July 29, 2022 in a residence in the 800 block of McMillan Street.
The Crown alleges Coaster shot Finlayson and that the bullet passed through the victim and grazed the top of another man’s head.
On Tuesday afternoon, a witness, who was in a relationship with Finlayson for a month prior to his death, testified Finlayson left her home around 6 a.m. on July 29, 2022 to gather some of his belongings from a residence on McMillan Street.
Later that morning, she received messages from an acquaintance that heard Finlayson had been shot.
The witness picked up the acquaintance and the two women went to the McMillan Street residence, where a male, who the witness described as tall, white, bald and in his 50s, told them he hadn’t seen Finlayson and didn’t know him.
The women left and the witness began to contact people she thought might know what happened to Finlayson. She eventually picked up a male acquaintance and drove him to a local bar.
The man first said he hadn’t been at the McMillan Street house and didn’t know where Finlayson was.
But the witness saw a video taken at the house that morning and when she pressed the man about it, he told the witness that Finlayson was dead, that he “had to do it” because Finlayson had hurt a member of his family.
The witness then left the bar, picked up the female acquaintance and the two returned to the McMillan Street residence.
The back door was unlocked and the two women found Finlayson laying on his stomach in the living room.
They then called 911.
During cross-examination, the witness said the man at the window of the McMillan Street house earlier in the day, who said he didn’t know Finlayson, was not Coaster, and that when giving her statement to police later that day, she told police how the man at the bar had confessed to killing Finlayson.
The trial is adjourned until March 17 when the Crown is expected to call more witnesses.
None of the allegations against the accused have been proven in court.
