Accused killer claims vehicle damaged by hitting deer
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/05/2023 (302 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A Manitoba man on trial for running down his neighbour and then shooting him dead claimed in jailhouse phone calls that damage to his vehicle was caused by hitting a deer, jurors were told this week.
“I ain’t smoked anybody with my car. I smoked a deer, just like I did nine or 10 f—ing times before,” Eric Wildman said during a Dec. 16, 2021, call to an unidentified man while he was in custody at Headingley Correctional Centre.
Wildman, 36, is charged with first-degree murder in the June 7, 2021, killing of 40-year-old Clifford Joseph. Wildman and Joseph lived on neighbouring properties near Stead, about 90 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.
In a phone call to a different man recorded Dec. 19, 2021, Wildman, unprompted, repeated the claim, causing the other man to question why he brought it up.
“What was that about?” the man said. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I did,” Wildman replied.
“Yeah, but why all of a sudden do you come out and say that?” the man said.
Prosecutors allege Joseph was trying to steal a trailer winch on Wildman’s property when Wildman arrived and ran Joseph over with his Chevrolet Impala, breaking Joseph’s leg and jaw.
Wildman, prosecutors allege, drove the injured man to another property three kilometres away, where he shot Joseph three times — twice in the back and once in the back of the head — before burying him in the bush under some branches.
Jurors have heard testimony that police found receipts in Wildman’s car showing he went to an auto parts business in Winnipeg two days later, and bought a replacement car hood and headlight.
“You think I would be dumb enough to f—ing go to Bucks Auto, pay with my credit card and leave the same f—ing hood right there?” Wildman said during the Dec. 16 call.
Wildman repaired damaged vehicles for resale from his home, which was destroyed by fire weeks before the killing.
“I know the government had a part to play in burning my house down,” Wildman told a woman in a Dec. 2 call.
“The government now?” the woman replied. “You keep changing your story there… You didn’t say anything about the government before. You were convinced it was the neighbours.”
“I don’t know who did it,” Wildman said. “I can’t prove it. It could have been the government, it could have been the neighbours…. It was 100 per cent arson, though.”
Court was told RCMP had identified Wildman as a suspect in the killing when officers found his car June 9, 2021, parked outside an Inglis Street home in Winnipeg. Police had towed the vehicle to RCMP headquarters in advance of securing a search warrant when, that same afternoon, Wildman called 911 from his mother’s Winnipeg home to report a handgun missing from his Stead property.
A 911 operator transferred the call to RCMP Sgt Morgan Page, who told Wildman he was under investigation for a homicide.
“So, we are going to send officers to (the house) to come and speak to you,” Page told Wildman on a recording of the phone call played for jurors Monday.
“I don’t want to speak to them without a lawyer present,” Wildman said.
When told he was going to be arrested, Wildman asked why.
“For the homicide of Clifford Joseph,” Page said.
“Why would I be arrested for him?” Wildman said.
“Because we have grounds to arrest you, so that’s what’s happening,” Page said.
Wildman gave his mother’s address, but when officers arrived minutes later he was gone, Page testified.
Jurors have heard Wildman took a taxi to the airport, rented a car and drove to Belleville, Ont., where he was arrested June 17.
Joseph’s body was discovered a day later.
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Someone once said a journalist is just a reporter in a good suit. Dean Pritchard doesn’t own a good suit. But he knows a good lawsuit.