Jurors watch surveillance videos of events leading up to fatal stabbing of Calgary chef

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Video footage of events leading up to the fatal stabbing of a Calgary chef, including the break and enter of his under-construction restaurant, was shown Thursday to jurors in the trial of his alleged murderers.

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Const. Evan Nelson testified he collected the surveillance video from a variety of security cameras at businesses in the vicinity of Christophe Herblin’s Croque Saveurs bistro.

Much of the evidence presented in the trial of second-degree murder suspects Anthony Dodgson and Tommie Holloway focused on what Nelson believes was a Dodge Caliber SUV seen driving in the area beginning at 1:41 a.m. on March 14, 2020.

The vehicle was captured repeatedly on the streets and alleys around the Bow Trail S.W. strip mall in which Croque Saveurs was to open.

In her opening address on Monday, Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail said it’s believed the Dodge was stolen shortly before the crime and used by Dodgson and Holloway in the break-in of Croque Saveurs.

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She said the restaurant under construction had little of value inside, but the target was an adjacent Spiritleaf cannabis store, which had earlier been broken into using the same method — breaking into the bistro and then through the wall the two businesses shared.

In the video suspects identified as male number one, believed to be Dodgson, and male number two, allegedly Holloway, are shown on the footage.

At one point male number one picks up a brick and at 2:49 a.m. throws it through the front window of the bistro.

Various camera angles then show the suspect vehicle driving in the area, before parking in a perpendicular alley north of the alley which runs behind the strip mall.

Two men, dressed in dark clothing, are then seen walking towards the back of the mall before different footage shows them at the front of Croque Saveurs, entering through the broken window at 3:08 a.m.

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Nelson told co-prosecutor Aleksander Simic that two minutes later, Herblin was captured arriving at the front of his shop.

Separate video from a camera aimed at the back alley showed the same two men then fleeing, one hopping into the SUV as it pulls up behind the mall and the other running away on foot.

Nelson said the security tapes show Herblin remained at the scene, parking his car to face into his bistro.

It’s the Crown’s theory that shortly after 6 a.m. the pair returned and Holloway lured Herblin to the parking lot by smashing a window of his car and Dodgson fatally stabbed him.

Nelson’s evidence resumes Friday morning.

KMartin@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @KMartinCourts