Tina Fontaine’s drug use under microscope at murder trial

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This article was published 29/01/2018 (2522 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The jury that will be tasked with deciding whether Tina Fontaine’s accused killer is guilty heard details Tuesday of post-mortem drug tests conducted on the 15-year-old victim.

Raymond Cormier, 55, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the August 2014 death. Tina’s body was found in the Red River, wrapped in a duvet cover and weighed down with rocks.

His defence team is expected to argue Tina’s admitted use of an anti-seizure prescription drug could have been lethal, even though no trace of the drug showed up in toxicology tests.

Defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn made the suggestion to forensic toxicologist Chris Keddy, as Synyshyn questioned the RCMP lab toxicologist about whether he could rule out the “lethality” of the drug gabapentin in combination with alcohol.

“This is correct, I cannot,” Keddy said.

If there was any gabapentin in Tina’s system when she died, it didn’t show up on any drug tests performed using samples of the 15-year-old girl’s chest cavity fluid, Keddy told court.

He said the only tests available for gabapentin in 2014 were meant to detect very high levels of the drug. Low levels, or “therapeutic” amounts, of the prescription drug would not have shown up in the test results.

Tina told a nurse at the Health Sciences Centre she had taken “gabbys” before she was admitted to the Winnipeg hospital Aug. 8, 2014 — the same day prosecutors believe she was killed. She was later released from hospital. Nine days later, her body was pulled from the Red River.

Gabapentin was initially prescribed in Canada to help prevent seizures for people with epilepsy, but it’s also used to treat migraines, fibromyalgia and bipolar disorder. Keddy testified it’s been used recreationally, causing “very mild euphoria” and “a cannabis-like high.” Its side-effects include drowsiness, slurring words and trouble walking.

The toxicology tests, which were analyzed by a former colleague of Keddy’s at the RCMP lab in Vancouver in 2014, showed Tina had high levels of alcohol and marijuana in her system. There were no traces of methamphetamine and no “confirmable” trace of cocaine, Keddy said. The level of alcohol in the chest cavity fluid was 99 mg per cent, well over the legal limit for driving.

Under questioning from Crown attorney James Ross, Keddy said levels of alcohol and THC are likely to be higher on a test performed after death, particularly when chest cavity fluid is tested rather than blood, rather than a truly accurate reading of drugs and alcohol consumed before death.

“The greatest likelihood is that this may be an over-estimate of the blood alcohol concentration at the time,” he said.

The Crown tried to establish the levels of drugs and alcohol found in Tina’s body could not have been fatal, and Keddy agreed. But he backed away from that stance during cross-examination.

He said he couldn’t be sure what Tina’s actual blood alcohol level was before she died. It could have been zero, or it could have been higher than the 99 mg per cent reflected in the post-mortem test results, because decomposition of the human body plays a role in the alcohol reading.

“Can I rule it out? No,” Keddy said, when Synyshyn asked if he could be sure the combination of gabapentin and alcohol wouldn’t have been lethal.

The jury also heard Tuesday from a former captain who docked the M.S. River Rouge tour boat at the Alexander Docks the weekend Tina’s body was found in the area. Alexander Cunningham testified he wasn’t there when Tina’s body was discovered, nor did he notice any debris or objects near the shore.

Offering colourful testimony peppered with examples from his own past experience, Cunningham said he believed the suction created when the boat’s propellers were in motion could cause a body to rise to the surface.

“I’ve seen a lot of bodies on the river, and I’m sure that the River Rouge has been responsible,” for bringing up at least a couple of them, he testified.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay