Court watches grisly police video of Minto slaughter

A10-minute police videotape ofthe bloodied home of victims Fred Fulton and Verna Decarie was shown during Gregory Allan Despres's first-degree murder trial in New BrunswickonTuesday.

Provincial court Judge Judy Clendenning told the packed courtroom that spectators could leave at any time during the screening if the images— which included shots ofthe bodies ofFulton and Decarie —were too upsetting. Several did, including many of the victims' family members.

Despres, 24, is accused of stabbing and beheading Fulton, 74, and stabbing Decarie, 70, on April 23, 2005. The couple lived in a modest homenext door to Despres in the central New Brunswick community of Minto. He has pleaded not guilty.

Fulton's daughter, Debbie Mowat, found the bodies three days after the murders, when she went to check on her father.

On Tuesday morning, the second day of the trial,Crown prosecutor Paul Hawkins asked RCMP Cpl. Don Hulsman to describe the video he shot on April 26, in the hours following the discovery of the bodies.

After the screening of the video, Hulsman, a 35-year veteran of the force, briefly had to stop givingtestimony, while he gathered his emotions.

"This home was very neat and tidy, everything had a place," he said. "It was also extremely clean, hardly even dust on the shelves. The residents were clean people."

Fulton's beheaded body found in kitchen

Hulsman said he arrived at the Fulton-Decarie home at 358 Slope Road at 4:30 p.m. and started shooting video shortly after.

Hulsman narrates as he shoots the video,entering through the back entrance of the Fulton-Decarie home and shooting bloody footprints on the deck andsmeared blood on the screen door, which, he says, appeared to have been kicked open.

Next, the video shows red stains on the inside and outside handles of the back door, which leads into the kitchen, where Fulton's beheaded body is lying under a comforter.

Hulsman then videotaped the bathroom, where more blood was found,and the living room, where a bloodstained white telephone,torn from the wall, and a dagger with red stains around it are shown on the floor.

In the bedroom, the video shows Decarie's nightgown-clad body lying on the floor, with bloodstains on the carpet andbedding, and the ceiling light smashed.

Back in the kitchen, Fulton's head, in a pillowcase under the kitchen table, is videotaped.

Despres appeared to doze off as tape wasshown

In court, Despres watched the tape intently at first, then appeared to grow bored, dozing off occasionally.

Despres has been in custody since his arrest in Massachusetts on April 27, 2005.

Following the screening, Hulsman testified that he also took 200 photographs of the home and described some of them to the court.

He said that because of the enormous amount of blood, police officers had to turn down the heat in the houseto preserve the evidence.

Hulsman also described several bloody footprints: one barefoot and several made by combat boots.

Testimony continues on Tuesday afternoon.