Hi,
Dustin Moir is currently on trial in Chilliwack. The verdict is due soon. Jesse West is being tried separately. Here's some current stories from the Province newspaper.
I've been at court. If there's anything else I can help with, just post here.
Thanks.
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Dad was in charge during Chelsey Acorn's killing, son testifies
24-year-old claims he was just doing as he was told
By Glenda Luymes, The ProvinceFebruary 10, 2010
"I do what my dad tells me."
That statement Tuesday by accused killer Dustin Moir, taking the stand in his own defence in B.C. Supreme Court in Chilliwack, seemed to sum up his response to the first-degree-murder charge against him.
As the 24-year-old described for the jury the events leading to 14-year-old Chelsey Acorn's 2005 death, he told a different story from the one he had told a fake crime boss played by an undercover police officer prior to his March 2007 arrest.
In the meeting with the undercover officer, videotaped and played earlier in the trial, Moir said he accompanied his father and co-accused, Jesse West, to the Hope campsite, where Chelsey's body was ultimately found in April 2006, in order to carry out a "hit."
Moir told the officer they set up a tent, put Chelsey inside with a beer and dug a hole. West then began to strangle Chelsey, but Moir had to finish the job, he said. They placed her body in the hole, and Moir threw a large rock on her head, he said.
Chelsey's cause of death was later determined to be "blunt-force trauma to the head and face."
Under cross-examination Tuesday, Moir told a different story, portraying himself as someone who was scared of his trucker father and always followed his directions.
Chelsey entered the lives of Moir and West in 2005.
Shown three pictures of the girl, Moir squeezed his eyes shut momentarily before the prosecutor suggested that Moir met her in Mission while working at a coffee shop. Moir denied it, challenging the testimony of other witnesses who said the pair dated briefly.
The prosecution also suggested West eventually met Chelsey through Moir, but Moir again denied it, saying, "I don't know how he met her."
According to Moir, his father called him some time in 2005 — he couldn't remember the exact date, Moir said — to say he would pick his son up at a gas station in Surrey. When he arrived, Chelsey was in the car. Moir got in and the three hit the road. He did not ask where they were going — which "was very normal," he said.
They stopped at the Tim Hortons in Merritt and then headed back toward Hope. At that point, Moir said he asked his father where they were going. The answer was "camping," he said.
West left the highway at the Carolin Mines exit and in an open place along the Coquihalla River, they set up a tent. Chelsey was given a beer and bound with duct tape. Moir said his father then began massaging her neck. Eventually, he began to choke her. He asked his son to help put her in a hole.
Fearing his father, Moir got down on his knees and began to fill the hole with dirt, scraping rocks on top to cover the body.
West packed up the car and the two men returned to Hope, where they stopped at a Dumpster and threw away Chelsey's clothes.
Moir said he did not remember the location of the Dumpster.
"You had just witnessed a murder . . . and you don't remember?" asked the prosecutor.
"I was extremely shaken," Moir replied, later adding, "I was shaken and I was scared."
Moir said the pair went to West's basement suite in Surrey, where father directed son to shower and clean under his nails.
When asked why he did not go to the police, Moir said he was afraid his dad would "do something to me."
The prosecutor accused him of "overlooking the obvious . . . You'd be pointing the finger at yourself."
"I would have went [to the police] if it was only that reason," Moir said.
The trial continues.
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Chelsey Acorn murder trial: Moir pleads with father
Court hears how son wanted dad to take 'more responsibility'
By Glenda Luymes, The ProvinceFebruary 11, 2010
Dustin Moir pleaded with his father to take "more responsibility" for 14-year-old Chelsey Acorn's death in a conversation captured by a hidden microphone in a police van used to transport the accused murderers after their arrest.
Crown prosecutor John Hempstead questioned Moir about the emotional exchange in his cross examination Wednesday in B.C. Supreme Court in Chilliwack, noting that Moir did not say he was simply following his father's directions during Chelsey's murder — and attempting to cast doubt on Moir's defence that he was an unwilling observer to the events.
Moir, 24, and his father, Jesse West, are charged with first-degree murder in the 2005 death of the Abbotsford teen.
The prosecution is trying to prove the pair planned to kill Chelsey, with whom they had a sexual relationship, when they took her to a campsite along the Coquihalla River near Hope, strangled her, buried her body and covered it with rocks.
Moir and West were arrested in March 2007 after a complex "Mr. Big" investigation in which they both confessed involvement in the murder to a fake crime boss played by an undercover police officer.
As part of the arrest, they were placed in a transport van with a hidden microphone.
Moir said that with "bars and glass" between them, it was his chance to "vent" at West, denying the prosecution's suggestion that the conversation showed he was not afraid of his father.
In the tape, Moir is on the offensive. He engages his father in conversation, telling him it is good to see him. He then tries to convince his father to take more blame because he is young and has his "whole life ahead." He offers his father money, and then promises not to tell his mother about any agreements they might make.
Moir explained the offer to the jury Wednesday, saying, "he is still my dad. What he did, I know, it's wrong. I dislike him very much, but . . . he's my father."
But Hempstead wasn't buying it, referring to a phone call between Moir and his mother that was also taped by police.
In the call, a crying Moir tells his mother he should have stayed away from his dad, adding he "almost fainted" when he saw his father during the arrest.
"You're playing your parents off, one against the other," Hempstead accused. "I put it to you that you're someone who manipulates your parents."
"I don't know how you could say that," replied Moir, getting upset.
"And nothing's your fault, right Mr. Moir?"
"I didn't say that."
Outside court, Chelsey's mother, Lisa Acorn, said she was hopeful her daughter would receive justice.
"I just think the whole investigation team has done a wonderful job," she said, adding, "I'd like to thank everyone involved."
She said that five years after Chelsey disappeared, her loss "still feels like yesterday. It's still raw."
gluymes@theprovince.com
Topic: WEST and MOIR: Chelsey Acorn (Read 5748 times)
