The Michael Ball murder trial left the courtroom Thursday, as jurors, lawyers, the judge and Ball himself travelled to an area along the Grand River.
The excursion was at the request of Ball’s lawyers, who admitted that it was an “unusual step” but hoped it would help jurors understand their case.
“It is not something that frequently happens – but where it’s in the interests of justice, it can be ordered,” defence lawyer Brennan Smart told CTV News.
“We owe it to the jurors to give them the best evidence that we can.”
A tour bus took jurors to the area near the Walter Bean trail, where Howlett’s body was found in the river in July 2013.
Ball, 24, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and committing an indignity to a dead body in connection with the 28-year-old’s death.
In addition to the spot in the river where a duffel bag containing the body was found, jurors had their attention drawn to locations like a garbage bin and a bridge over a concrete base.
Jurors have previously heard that a person expected to be called as a witness helped Ball get rid of Howlett’s body by stuffing it in a duffel bag and dumping it from the concrete base.
The validity of those claims has not been proven in court.
Jurors have also been shown a map drawn by this person to illustrate what happened at the river.
Defence lawyers have argued that a series of rocks pictured in the map don’t exist in the location the map claims they do.
Smart said he would have preferred if the jurors could have made it to the river before the recent snowfall, but wanted them to have heard a certain amount of testimony before they did.
“The jurors really couldn’t come down here until they’d heard enough evidence to understand the importance of coming here,” he said.
The trial resumes on Monday, back inside Kitchener’s courthouse.
