Susan Clairmont: Drugs and video surveillance will be keys in George Opassinis murder trial: Crown

If it was a film, it would open with a shot of the toy elephant.

Small and plush, spotted with pink and red hearts. Sitting on the tank of a white toilet in a white bathroom.

Then the camera would tilt down.

Black shoelaces. Some ends tied in an elaborate web to bars on the wall. Bars that might be for towels, or to help someone who is unsteady.

Pan lower to the other ends of those laces. They are tied around the wrists and ankles of a dead man lying on the floor.

Hog-tied.

This is how Michel Pilon was found.

Police photos of the scene flash on courtroom screens. As the images move closer and closer to focus on Michel's body - just 97 pounds - his sister chokes back a sob.

Michel was in his new, affordable and supportive housing apartment. A place where he could get help for his drug addiction. A place where he was meant to be safe.

The police found one other person in the apartment," assistant Crown attorney Fraser McCracken tells the jury in his opening address. George Opassinis. Video surveillance would later show that he had been there with Michel - or his body - for 24 hours."

This is his murder trial."

Opassinis is charged with second-degree murder.

Michel, 53, was found face down in his Melvin Avenue apartment early on Nov. 30, 2018. He was strangled.

The shoelace around his neck had Michel's DNA on it. And that of Opassinis, McCracken says.

A forensic pathologist is expected to testify Michel was either tied up after he died or - less likely" - that he didn't struggle when he was tied, the Crown says.

Michel was known as a generous, social guy who ate dinner most nights with his neighbour Monte McGill with whom he also went bottling" - collecting empties to redeem for cash at the Beer Store.

On his bad days, he would need a wheelchair to get around," says McCracken.

And Michel was addicted to drugs.

He - like many of those around him - regularly used hard drugs like crystal meth and crack cocaine. Although he struggled with it," says the Crown, he was more than his addiction."

McGill will testify that Opassinis had been staying with Michel. And Michel wanted him out."

Opassinis sits in the prisoner's box, his shoulder-length grey hair pulled into a ponytail. Tape on his glasses. Sometimes, he mutters to himself.

The five women and seven men of the jury are told by the Crown they will hear a lot about drugs during this trial. Many witnesses have used drugs.

Also central to the trial will be surveillance video from the third floor hallway. It shows everyone who came and left Michel's apartment - including his drug dealers - in the 28 hours leading up to his body being found. Some people came, knocked, and got no answer.

Then there was the time support staff went in.

Two support workers knocked at Michel's apartment at 1 p.m. on Nov. 29, to do a routine check.

When there was no answer, they used their key.

The apartment was a mess.

Photos screened for the jury show the floor littered with garbage: clothes, food, plastic bags, dishes ... Cupboard doors open, drawers pulled out.

The staff saw a man they didn't know in the apartment. He stood in the bathroom doorway, blocking their view.

This man looked stunned," the Crown tells the jury. When they asked him where Michel was, he said Michel was out."

Video surveillance will prove Michel was not out, the Crown says.

Twelve hours passed.

David Herak was a friend. At 1 a.m. on the 30th he knocked at Michel's apartment. And knocked. And knocked.

Opassinis opened the door.

Herak saw Michel. Dead. Tied up in the bathroom.

Herak was wanted on a warrant and didn't want to call police. So he had McGill do it.

When firefighters and police arrived, they found Michel's body and Opassinis in the apartment.

Firefighter Randy Lowell, the trial's first witness, was behind police when they knocked on the door.

I know there was a response from the inside," the now retired captain tells the court. The occupant said I'm in my underwear. I have one shoe on, one shoe off.' The police said Don't worry about that.'"

Within seconds, the door opened, a man came out. He had one flip-flop on.

He was calm," Lowell says. He followed the directions of the officers and they led him down the hallway."

Lowell carefully picked his way through the debris to get to the body. He was to see if he could help the man on the bathroom floor.

But the man was grey. Cold. There was no pulse. Rigor mortis had set in.

There was nothing to be done.

Susan Clairmont is a Hamilton-based crime, court and social justice columnist at The Spectator. Reach her via email: sclairmont@thespec.com