A 19-year-old Sundre woman who was a passenger in the truck that ran over and killed 18-year-old Olds College student Nicholas Baier in October 2010 has testified about looking directly at him seconds before he was struck down.
"The last person I remember seeing was Nick,” said Autumn Campkin, who choked back tears during her testimony. “You could see him and all of a sudden you couldn't. It was kind of like a speed bump when he went over Nick."
Jeffrey Leinen, 25, faces charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
His seven-man, five-woman Calgary Court of Queen's Bench jury trial before Justice Marsha Erb started Nov. 28 and is continuing this week.
Baier was run down and killed outside the Texas Mickey bar on Oct. 29, 2010. Nineteen-year-old student Dan Skocdopole was injured in the same incident.
Crown prosecutor Roy Smith says the prosecution intends to prove that Leinen “was angry and took action deliberately and intentionally and Nicholas Baier lost his life as a result.”
On Wednesday, Autumn Campkin, who was a recent acquaintance of the accused in October 2010, testified she got into the truck with Leinen after he had been kicked out of the bar for punching and knocking over a wheelchair-bound man inside the bar.
As they sat in the running vehicle outside the bar's main entrance, Leinen was upset about being forcibly removed from the bar by bouncers, she said.
“He looked really angry and frustrated about what had gone on in the bar,” she said. “I tried to convince him that it wasn't a good idea to be driving. He wasn't listening to me. He was concerned about a cut on his eyebrow. It was bleeding pretty bad. It was gushing out blood.
“He was scanning the crowd (of people outside the entrance). He was white-knuckling the steering wheel. He said, ‘those (expletive deleted) are going to get it'.”
After sitting in the stopped vehicle for about 14 seconds, Leinen then accelerated towards the crowd, she said.
The truck ran over several people and then headed down the street at high speed, she said.
“Jeff just kept driving,” she said. “I was screaming. I told him I couldn't believe he actually ran him (Nick) over and that he didn't stop. I was really scared.”
Campkin said she pleaded with Leinen to let her out of the vehicle, and he did so about two blocks from the bar. She said the last time she saw Leinen he was driving away with police in pursuit.
Leinen was arrested on the south side of Olds moments later when the pickup rolled onto its side.
On Thursday jurors were reportedly shown a video of Leinen being arrested by an Olds RCMP officer a short distance from where the truck rolled.
In an agreed statement of facts from the Crown and defence, which was entered as an exhibit in court on the first day of the trial, the accused has admitted that he was the driver of the Ford F250 truck that hit the group of people including Baier and Skocdopole.
Also on the first day of the trial, jurors were shown a surveillance video taken outside the Texas Mickey.
In the video, a pickup truck can be seen stopped in front of the entrance of the bar. The vehicle then accelerates into the crowd of people before turning southbound on 50 Avenue.
The Crown may wrap up its case sometime this week after calling a total of 25 witnesses.
