Accused in Armstrong manslaughter trial Googled: ‘What happens to somebody who is choked to death’

VERNON – A Salmon Arm man accused of manslaughter and an Armstrong mother of two first met on the Internet dating site Plenty of Fish, court heard this morning during a taped police interview.

They had a brief, sexual relationship and then didn’t see each other again for four-to-five years, Logan Scott said during a police interrogation Aug. 28, 2014.

The police statement, which was played in Vernon Supreme Court today, April 24, is the subject of a voir dire — a trial within a trial to determine if the evidence can be admitted.

Jillian McKinty was found dead the morning of Nov. 27, 2013 in her home in Armstrong by an upstairs neighbour after her two young children were heard yelling.

Scott, who was 31 at the time of his arrest in August 2014, is charged with manslaughter, and one count of theft for allegedly stealing McKinty’s cell phone and laptop.

During the police interview at the Salmon Arm police detachment, Scott admitted that he and McKinty met online and that the relationship was mostly sexual. He said they met a total of five times over the course of about three months.

Scott said he eventually stopped replying to her text messages, and didn’t see her again until November 2013 at Askews Foods in Armstrong. They exchanged numbers, and began texting again.

The evening of Nov. 26, Scott went to McKinty’s home. During the interview, he said the purpose of the visit was to help her install XBMC, an open source media player on her computer.

During the interrogation, the investigator tells Scott he doesn’t have to say anything unless he chooses to. Scott, who at the time of the interview had already spent a night in cells, says he wants a lawyer, but continues to provide short responses to the questions while sipping a coffee given to him by the investigator.

At one point, the investigator brings up McKinty’s two sons, who were five-and-a-half when she died, and were present in the home.

“This is what it’s all about now. This is why I’m here….” the investigator says. “Above all else, I’m here to get some answers to the truth about what happened.”

With a timeline tacked to the wall of the interrogation room, the investigator points out the numerous text messages exchanged by Scott and McKinty, as well as a Google search Scott made that said: ‘What happens to somebody who is choked to death.”

Scott told the investigator he performed the search after he left McKinty’s, but the investigator questions him on that.

“When you Google something like that, if it’s before, we have premeditated sexual murder, and you’re a predator,” the investigator says.

In earlier court proceedings, court heard that Scott’s DNA was found at McKinty’s residence and that he didn’t show up to a Jan. 20, 2014 interview with police. He was later caught speeding through a school zone on Vancouver Island and eventually arrested.

Scott was married with kids at the time of the interrogation.

The voir dire is expected to continue for the next few days in Vernon court.

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