A high number of vehicles coming and going from Michael Ball’s apartment prompted concerns that Ball was dealing drugs, his murder trial heard Tuesday.
On the stand was Jim Reid, who rented his basement apartment on Chestnut Street in Kitchener to Ball.
“Neighbours brought to my attention their concerns about drug transactions,” Reid testified.
Jurors heard that Ball lived in the apartment for about a year, paying $500 per month in rent.
It’s the same apartment that furniture and other items were taken from in 2013, as police investigated the death of Erin Howlett.
Ball is accused of killing her. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and committing an indignity to a dead body.
Reid said he started hearing concerns about Ball from neighbours in the spring of 2013, and contacted police.
“Then when Erin Howlett was missing (in June 2013), I was brought into it,” he said.
Reid said that he had seen Howlett going into the basement apartment on multiple occasions.
Under cross-examination, he testified that she sometimes left with the driver of a black pickup truck with a loud diesel engine.
“Sometimes (the truck) would wait some distance down the street and wait for half an hour,” he said.
Jurors also heard from Det. Const. Brendan Westmorland of Waterloo Regional Police.
Westmorland was asked about phone records of a man who claims he helped Ball dispose of Howlett’s body.
Specifically, defence lawyer Brennan Smart asked whether “that phone record was registered under an alias ‘Big Titty Mike’.”
As Westmorland looked through his notes, Smart said he could answer the question at a later date, when he returns for further cross-examination.
Westmorland was the officer in charge of search warrants during the investigation into Howlett’s death.
The final witness of the day was another Waterloo Regional Police officer.
During his testimony, jurors were shown security camera footage of Howlett at an Elmira café on the last day she was seen alive.
