The trial of a man accused of murdering his mother in their Winnipeg home as a teen in 2019 heard testimony Thursday from the woman’s boyfriend, who told jurors about a co-worker the woman said was harassing her before she died.

“She was scared of him,” Lorne Vandersteen told jurors. The victim, his on-and-off girlfriend at the time, had told Vandersteen she’d made a complaint at work about the co-worker, but no action was taken because of a lack of evidence, he said.

“She had advised me that he was harassing her, threatening her.”

The woman’s now 23-year-old son is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the killing of his 51-year-old mother in March 2019.

CBC News is not naming the mother to protect the identity of the accused, who was 16 at the time of her death and cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Jurors previously heard that on the day of his mother’s death, the youth left their home to run errands around 9 a.m., and returned less than two hours later, which is when he called 911.

The woman’s skull was broken in multiple places, and she suffered a broken arm and several broken fingers while trying to defend herself, Crown attorney Adam Bergen previously told court.

‘Mom was always worried’: 911 call

During the 911 call, the teen said his mother was sleeping when he left and the front door was unlocked, but the house didn’t appear broken into. The son was also asked whether he knew if his mother had any conflicts with anyone.

“This guy at work was bothering her.… I don’t know,” he said. “Mom was always worried.”

Jurors hearing the case were previously presented with two possibilities: that the son murdered his mother before he left home that morning, or someone else entered the home and killed her while he was running errands.

The woman’s boyfriend told jurors Thursday she had told him about two incidents that raised security concerns before her death: one where her car was rifled through, and another where she found footprints in the snow going from her home’s front window to the backyard.

He said while she believed the car incident was “kids just looking for a quick score of change or something,” she assumed the footprints she found belonged to her co-worker.

“Did you discuss, were there any other possibilities?” prosecutor Bergen asked Vandersteen.

“To allay her fears, I think I said it could have been [a] meter reader,” said Vandersteen, who told jurors he also suggested his girlfriend get a security camera.

Cross-examination over texts

James Lockyer, the son’s lawyer, previously said the vcitim had expressed fears about the co-worker mentioned in the 911 call, and that she’d told her sisters in a text that “if anything happens to me, it was him.”

Jurors heard the woman watched a Winnipeg Jets game at home with her boyfriend and son the night before her death, and that she sent her last text to her boyfriend around 1 a.m., after he’d gone home. When he responded to her with several texts later that morning, she never answered.

During cross-examination Thursday, lawyer Lockyer asked Vandersteen about some of his texts with his girlfriend in the week leading up to her death, and pressed him about a number of statements he made to court earlier in the day.

Lockyer noted Vandersteen told police at the time there wasn’t anything unusual about his girlfriend not responding to a morning text immediately, but said Thursday it was unusual, which the lawyer pointed to as a discrepancy.

“My recollection as of today is that she would have responded relatively quickly,” Vandersteen said. 

Vandersteen also testified he got along well with his girlfriend’s son, who he said helped his mom out a lot around the house, and that he never saw the son act out in annoyance or anger.

“She bragged a lot about [her son], am I right?” Lockyer asked. “How good a kid he was?”

“Yes. She did,” Vandersteen said.

Boyfriend’s testimony to continue

Jurors previously heard a motion-activated doorbell camera near the home caught the son as he left and returned to the home on the morning of his mother’s death, and no one else was seen entering the home during that time.

Prosecutor Bergen said first responders noted the smell of bleach or another solvent when they arrived at the woman’s home. 

Court also previously heard the son’s DNA profile was found on a sample taken from a bottle of bleach in the home, and his blood was found on a pair of gloves and a jacket in his bedroom, but a DNA expert testified that how or when those got there is unknown.

Surveillance footage showed the co-worker arriving at his workplace at 9:03 on the morning of her death and leaving the building for a coffee break around 11:28 a.m., by which point she’d already been pronounced dead in hospital, Bergen previously said.

Evidence from the workplace’s swipe card system will show how difficult it would have been for the man to enter or exit the building undetected, Bergen had told jurors.

Although the co-worker had a strong alibi, Lockyer previously said the man’s previous military experience would have enabled him to leave the building undetected, and that he had the “wherewithal to plan and commit her murder.” 

Lockyer also told jurors earlier in the trial that there was evidence the doorbell camera that showed the son leaving the home that morning was known to miss some of the motion occurring in front of it at times.

Vandersteen is expected to continue being cross-examined Friday.

The trial, which is scheduled to continue until March, marks the second time jurors heard the case. Court of King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne previously told the jury the case had gone to trial before, but urged them not to speculate on what sparked the retrial.