Magnotta first-degree murder trial hears from Harper’s deputy chief of staff

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MONTREAL — Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s deputy chief of staff testified at Luka Rocco Magnotta’s first-degree murder trial on Monday about the day her office received a parcel containing the foot of victim Jun Lin.

Jenni Byrne was the Conservatives’ director of political operations when a partially opened package arrived at party headquarters in Ottawa on May 29, 2012.

Byrne told the trial her assistant brought her the parcel and that she proceeded to open it completely, removing pink tissue paper and a black garbage bag before finding a black gift bag inside.

Byrne asked her assistant for scissors to open up the soft and mushy bag.

“We clipped the top off and there was a very, very bad smell,” she testified. “I knew that because of the nature of the smell, it seemed something that was rotting…and I thought it should be brought to the attention of the police.”

She told her aide to call 911 because “something was not right.”

Byrne never saw what was in the package — a foot belonging to Lin, the 33-year-old Chinese engineering student Magnotta has admitted to killing.

Magnotta, 32, is charged with first-degree murder in Lin’s slaying and dismemberment.

He has admitted the physical acts he’s accused of but has pleaded not guilty by way of mental disorder.

He faces four other charges: criminally harassing Harper and other members of Parliament; mailing obscene and indecent material; committing an indignity to a body; and publishing obscene materials.

Magnotta kept his head down as graphic photos were shown Monday of the foot as well as of a severed left hand that was in a separate package that never reached its destination — federal Liberal headquarters in Ottawa. It was intercepted at a Canada Post facility in the nation’s capital.

Both boxes had the same return address, listed to one Renee Bordelais.

Byrne said Harper was notified of the situation at party headquarters, but could not say when he was told.

She eventually spoke to his chief of staff at the time, Nigel Wright, once she was permitted to leave quarantine about 90 minutes after the package had been found.

Harper was in Ottawa on the day the box was delivered, but Byrne was unsure where his wife, Laureen, was.

Byrne identified the Laureen Teskey mentioned in a note found in the box as Harper’s wife. Teskey is her maiden name.

Theresa Kelm, a detective-constable with the major-crimes unit of the Ottawa police, testified later and identified a second name superimposed on the pink note addressed to the Conservatives that Byrne did not recognize.

Etched lightly was the name “Neil Fenton,” who was identified as Laureen Harper’s first husband.

The jury also heard from a Montreal police detective who extracted video and still images from a memory card found inside a discarded camcorder in the garbage behind Magnotta’s apartment.

Panagiotis Sarganis began his largely technical testimony that will ultimately include the jury viewing some of what he found on the card — 15 videos and 505 still photos.

He told the jury that some of the video footage from the memory card appeared in a so-called murder video that was published on the Internet in May 2012.

Although the calendar wasn’t set on the camera, Sarganis was able to determine when the video was taken — May 25, 2012.

Investigators determined that some files on the memory card were opened on Magnotta’s computer, seized in Berlin, where he was ultimately arrested on June 4, 2012.

Sarganis is expected to resume his testimony later this week.

Earlier on Monday, a postal-counter employee testified about two packages mailed by Magnotta to Vancouver.

The witness, Vee Foong Law, didn’t remember serving Magnotta on May 26, 2012, at a downtown Montreal souvenir shop where the counter was located.

Law was able to retrace the transaction using video surveillance and time-stamped receipts.

Magnotta mailed the packages the same day he left Canada for Europe.

The Vancouver packages were the subject of testimony Friday when the people whose names were listed as the sender appeared as witnesses.

Hubert Chretien, the son of ex-prime minister Jean Chretien, and Logan Valentini, the sister of convicted killer Karla Homolka, both said they didn’t know Magnotta and never mailed anything to Vancouver schools.

The trial continues Tuesday.