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In the hours before she was killed, Tara Miller begged for her life, the prosecution told the judge in an opening statement on Day 1 of the trial for the four people accused of confining, kidnapping and murdering the 27-year-old.
Greg Schuster, Jared Burke, Gurpreet Gill and Shyana Popplestone each face a charge of first-degree murder in Miller’s 2023 death.
Miller’s body was discovered in a ditch near Okotoks on March 30, one day after surveillance video captured her being forced out of her home and into a truck while bound, bleeding and with her head covered.
The medical examiner later determined the victim had been beaten, strangled and forced to ingest fentanyl.
Last week, Paul Fettig was handed a three-and-a-half-year sentence after pleading guilty to forcible confinement last year for his role in helping to get Miller into the back of a stolen truck.
On Monday, prosecutor Britta Kristensen presented an opening statement on behalf of herself and co-counsel Katherine Love to Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby, outlining the Crown’s theory of the case and the anticipated evidence.
‘An impending attack’
At the time of her death, Miller lived in the northeast community of Saddle Ridge and had been allowing up to nine others to stay in her home.
Days before the killing, court heard that Schuster and Burke were both released from the Calgary Remand Centre and returned to live in Miller’s home.
Miller repeatedly asked Schuster and his associates to leave her home, according to the Crown.
In the three days before the killing, the prosecution says Schuster “repeatedly messaged” Miller’s imprisoned boyfriend about “an impending attack” on Miller.
“The animosity was percolating against Ms. Miller in the days leading up to her murder and Mr. Schuster in particular seemed to be plotting against her,” said Kristensen.
The attack
The Crown says it will present evidence that on the evening of March 29, the accused killers met up at and entered Miller’s home.
The prosecution alleges Popplestone “began beating” Miller with a mallet.
Another roommate, who is suspected of warning Miller about the attack, was also beaten, allegedly by the three men on trial, and suffered a broken jaw.
During the initial assault, Miller’s boyfriend called her from the remand centre. A man believed to be Gill answered her phone. In the background “Miller can be heard pleading,” said Kristensen.
‘Get a new girlfriend’
The call taker then told Miller’s boyfriend that he’d need to “get a new girlfriend,” according to the Crown.
The Crown also says it will introduce evidence found on a phone it alleges belonged to Gill which contained photos depicting Miller in her upstairs bathroom with head wounds as well as photos of a man believed to be the roommate who was beaten in the same bathroom with a hood taped over his head.
After the beating inside the home, video evidence suggests Miller was then forced into a stolen white pickup truck with a canopy.
The prosecution acknowledged there is “scant evidence” of what happened between 9:30 p.m., when the Crown alleges Miller was forced into the truck, and the next morning.
Remand centre phone calls
But the Crown says it will present evidence from Schuster’s phone that it says shows he drove to Okotoks the night of the homicide and headed back to Calgary around 11:45 p.m.
Several calls made from the remand centre leading up to the homicide and afterward suggest that Burke and Schuster were asked to attack Miller, Kristensen told the judge.
Some of the Crown’s evidence is still subject to Justice Feasby’s rulings on admissibility.
Schuster, Burke, Gill and Popplestone are represented by defence lawyers Shaun Leochko, Robin McIntyre, Jeanine Zahara and Andrea Urquhart.