HALIFAX—One of Nadia Gonzales’s alleged murderers had plans to kill the Halifax mother a week before she was found stabbed to death, a witness testified Friday.

“He didn’t like her ... I don’t know what his exact plan was, but he definitely had one,” Crown witness Joseph Fowler said of conversations he had with accused Calvin Sparks a week before Gonzales’ death.

“He just said that he wanted to get rid of her.”

Gonzales, 35, was found unresponsive in a large black duffel bag on the stairwell of a Dartmouth apartment building on June 16, 2017. She had suffered 37 stab wounds, and was pronounced dead at the scene, the court has heard.

Sparks, 26, and co-accused Samanda Ritch, 22, are each charged with one count of first-degree murder with respect to Gonzales’ death, and one count each of attempted murder for six stab wounds sustained by 72-year-old John Patterson.

During testimony, Fowler told the court that he had only known Sparks for a couple weeks in the summer of 2017, saying they had spent time together on a handful of occasions, “kicking it, smoking weed,” either at his house in Clayton Park or on drives around the city.

He had known Gonzales for longer, Fowler testified, because his stepfather got him a job driving Gonzales “wherever she told (him) to go” on drug deliveries.

Fowler testified Thursday that he assumed Gonzales and Sparks to be friends, but that “they seemed to have a little issue between them.”

When Crown prosecutor Rob Kennedy asked Fowler what led him to believe Gonzales and Sparks had “an issue” between them, Fowler testified that “they were both talking (stuff) about each other behind each other’s backs.”

“He didn’t trust her ... that was just the vibe I got,” Fowler said. “He definitely did not like her.”

During the 19th day of proceedings, Friday, Fowler told the court he had warned Gonzales about Sparks’ plan to hurt her while they had been driving around that week.

“She just looked down at her phone ... she just had her guard down and I was like hey man, you probably shouldn’t do that, there’s an opportunity right there, right,” Fowler said.

“I just looked at her and I gave her the raw truth, you know like, I could have just got you man, what are you doing — I could have just ended it all right here. But I liked her, so I was like watch out right.”

Fowler told the court Sparks had shown him conversations between Gonzales and police on Gonzales’ phone, and that Sparks had been “pissed off” by the conversations.

Multiple witnesses have testified that Sparks and Gonzales were both involved in the sale of crack cocaine, and that there was competition among Gonzales and her associates in the business.

Kennedy asked Fowler if Sparks had told him why he planned to kill Gonzales, but Fowler said it was “a personal thing ... between him and her” and Sparks never told him what it was about.

Upon reviewing his September 2018 statement, Fowler told the court the conflict was “over money.”

“He was jealous of her, whatever she was doing, she was making more money than him,” he added.

Fowler testified that, about a week before Gonzales’ death, Sparks had tried to involve him in the killing, but that he had “bulls - - - (his) way out of it.”

“I’d just put him off, right, tell him what he wanted to hear,” Fowler said.

Fowler testified that Sparks asked him to “take her somewhere and poke her and just put the seat back,” adding that Sparks would come “deal with the rest.”

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“I don’t think there was any set plan ... he was just going to poke her with a knife,” Fowler said.

When Kennedy asked if he had any details about the knife Sparks planned to use, Fowler described an orange-handled knife with a three-inch black blade that Sparks “always had ... in his pocket.”

Fowler told the court he could not recall trying to talk Sparks out of his plan, but described the plan as “sloppy” and “horrible.”

The Crown asked Fowler to review a number of text messages he exchanged with both Sparks and Gonzales in the week leading up to Gonzales’ death.

During testimony on Thursday, the Crown played three phone calls Sparks made to Fowler from the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility on June 24 and June 27, 2017, shortly after his arrest on June 17. On those calls, Sparks asked Fowler to break a SIM card that he had been using at the time.

“I need you to do me a huge favour ... break that SIM card and don’t talk to that officer,” Sparks could be heard saying in the call.

The Crown asked Fowler whether he had, in fact, broken the SIM card, to which Fowler replied that he had not, but that the phone had broken in a separate incident so he had sold it.

During testimony Friday, Fowler told the court he got rid of the phone because “it got tapped” and “was heatin’ (him) out.”

Kennedy asked Fowler what he was worried about with regards to his phone, and Fowler replied that he was concerned about his “little bit of involvement,” meaning his text message exchanges with Sparks and Gonzales.

Fowler testified that he could not remember the context for many of the messages, but noted that he had told Gonzales about Sparks’ plan because he “liked her a lot better than (he) liked him.”

During cross-examination, Ritch’s defence attorney Peter Planetta asked whether Fowler had ever discussed Sparks’ plans with his client, to which Fowler replied that he had only met Ritch once and she was a “complete stranger” to him.

Fowler also testified to having lied about not remembering the details of his 2018 statement during his testimony Thursday.

“I was nervous,” he told the court.

Both accused appeared in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in front of Justice Christa Brothers on Friday. Fowler is expected to take the stand again Monday for cross-examination from Sparks’ attorney, Malcolm Jeffcock.

Julia-Simone Rutgers is a Halifax-based journalist and a freelance contributor for Star Halifax. Follow her on Twitter: @jsrutgers

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