Editor’s note: The following article contains graphic details that could be disturbing for some readers.
Police identification officers spent the day on the witness stand Wednesday admitting photos and video taken of the Allandale apartment where 19-year-old Nickolas Pasowisty and his 51-year-old father, James Pasowisty, were killed four years ago. Both men died of multiple stab wounds.
Dyrrin Daley is entering the second week of his trial on charges of first- and second-degree murder in connection to the Pasowistys' deaths in February 2017.
Daley, 28, who has been wearing a grey dress shirt to the trial buttoned to the neck with a black jacket and slacks, has been taking occasional notes with a court-issued Sharpie while quietly watching the trial from the prisoner’s box, which is by topped with a glass periphery further divided from the public gallery with sections of Plexiglass.
The entire courtroom is outfitted with Plexiglass to separate its various areas.
In opening court Wednesday, Justice Vanessa Christie pointed to the panels, masking and distancing in the courtroom as effective protection measures which helped to prevent against any possible spread of COVID-19.
The trial was suspended Monday and Tuesday after it was revealed that a witness officer who appeared in the courtroom last week later discovered he had contracted COVID-19.
“We are able to continue this week because we’re following those protocols… and I want to make sure we continue to do that,” the judge said.
The lawyers and judge all reported they had received negative results from their COVID testing.
Earlier, Barrie police Det.-Const Shannon Green submitted dozens of photos she had taken of the scene.
During cross-examination on Wednesday, defence lawyer James Harbic asked the identification officer about some baggies containing what she called a green leafy substance, small scissors, an Exacto knife, a bong and a small scale visible in some of the photos in the living room.
“All of these things are consistent with drugs or substance, is that fair?,” he asked.
“Yes,” Green answered, adding they’re often associated with marijuana use.
Court had heard earlier that the elder Pasowisty supplemented his disability income with cannabis sales.
Barrie police Sgt. Glen Crooks, who headed up the identification unit at the time, took video of the bloody scene as well as swabs, but said he was in a race against time. A change in weather, he told the court, can alter a scene and he wanted to capture bloodied footsteps in the snow before the snow melted.
As the day got warmer that afternoon, the snow melt caused icicles to form off the balcony, some of which had mixed with blood, turning them pink, the court heard.
The trial is expected to continue Thursday with officers testifying. That will include the viewing of a four-hour video of some of the police investigation.
