Accused B.C. serial killer denied killing teen upon arrest: officer

Cody Alan Legebokoff is shown in a B.C. RCMP handout photo.

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. -- Minutes after he was arrested on the side of a snowy northern British Columbia highway, alleged serial killer Cody Legebokoff was quick to deny murdering a teen girl, his trial heard Wednesday.

In an audio recording played at Legebokoff's trial -- where he is facing four counts of first-degree murder -- the young man, then 20, can be heard frequently interrupting a police officer and repeatedly asking for his father.

The recording was made shortly after a conservation officer discovered the body of 15-year-old Loren Leslie, who was found dead along a logging road that Legebokoff's truck was seen speeding away from on the evening of Nov 27, 2010, the trial has heard.

"I told you already that I have arrested you for the murder of..." said Const. Kanwalprit Sidhu.

"I did not murder anybody," said Legebokoff, cutting the officer off.

Sidhu continued, informing Legebokoff, who was handcuffed and sitting in the back of a police cruiser, of his right to contact a lawyer.

"I want to call my dad," said Legebokoff.

"Is your dad a lawyer?" asked Sidhu.

"I want to call my dad, because I didn't do this," replied Legebokoff.

Legebokoff's voice quickly grew louder and more urgent, talking over the officer and swearing. At one point, he told the officer he wanted to leave.

"I did not do this," said Legebokoff.

Const. Aaron Kehler, the RCMP officer who pulled over Legebokoff's truck, testified earlier on Wednesday and recalled other things Legebokoff said shortly after he was arrested for murder.

"Mr. Legebokoff turned to me and said, 'I found the girl, she was dead,' and then a short time after he said, 'She committed suicide,"' recalled Kehler, as Legebokoff listened from the witness box.

"He then looked at me and said, 'I didn't kill the girl."'

Legebokoff was eventually charged in the deaths of Leslie, 35-year-old Jill Stuchenko, 35-year-old Cynthia Maas and 23-year-old Natasha Montgomery.

The Crown has previously said the man first denied even knowing Leslie and claimed he happened upon the teen's body by accident.

Eventually, he told police he and Leslie met online and got together that night, the Crown said. He said the pair had sex but she "started freaking out," hitting herself with a pipe wrench and stabbing herself in the neck, the Crown has said.

Kehler told the trial that when he first encountered Legebokoff after pulling over his truck, he noticed a smear of blood on the man's chin, as well as blood on his legs, his shoes and on the floor of the pickup truck. He also found a pipe wrench and a multi-tool knife, both stained with blood, he said.

Legebokoff explained the blood by saying he had been poaching deer with a friend and he was on the logging road checking out a possible hunting spot, Kehler testified.

Kehler took the jury through a series of photographs of Legebokoff that were taken the night he was arrested. In the photos, he is seen with shaggy hair and wearing a dark sweatshirt and plaid shorts. Red stains are visible on his legs, hands and shoes. In one photo, a red blotch can be seen amongst the stubble on the edge of his chin.

Kehler said he found a pair of crack pipes in the truck's ashtray, which Legebokoff said belonged to a friend.

The Crown has described Legebokoff as a frequent cocaine user who enlisted the help of sex workers to obtain the drug.

During an opening statement on Monday, a Crown lawyer said Stuchenko, Maas and Montgomery were cocaine users and had turned to sex work.

Legebokoff has pleaded not guilty.