HALIFAX—The court heard from arresting officers who took both Calvin Sparks and Samanda Ritch into custody the morning after 35-year-old Halifax mother Nadia Gonzales was found dead in a Dartmouth apartment complex during Tuesday’s trial proceedings.

Gonzales was found unresponsive in a hockey duffel bag left in the stairwell of 33 Hastings Dr. on June 16, 2017. She had suffered 37 stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, the court has heard.

John Patterson, 72, was found in the field of a nearby elementary school the same day, having suffered six stab wounds. He was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, police reported at the time.

Sparks, 26, and Ritch, 22, each face one charge of first-degree murder with respect to Gonzales’s death and one count of attempted murder for the injuries Patterson suffered. Both appeared in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in front of Justice Christa Brothers for the 11th day of the trial.

Halifax Regional Police (HRP) Const. Gilles Boudreau was on uniform patrol the morning of June 17 and was tasked with locating a suspect — Sparks — that morning.

Boudreau testified that he arrived at an address in Halifax around 6:30 a.m. on June 17. Around 8 a.m., Boudreau said he and other officers noticed someone peek out over a fence then retreat from view. Nearly 40 minutes later, officers located Sparks on the back steps of the property.

“He was acting very casual,” Boudreau said.

Sparks was then arrested, Boudreau testified. He said he patted down Sparks and noticed a cellphone in his jeans’ front pocket, as well as a “grocery bag tied to the belt loop on his pants.”

The court also heard testimony from Const. Caleb Sarty, who took custody of Sparks after his arrest. Sarty noted that Sparks had bandages on his left hand, and his right ring finger and little finger.

Sarty testified that Sparks seemed “calm and co-operative” when he was taken to Halifax police headquarters for processing.

“He was initially co-operative with the seizure of his clothing, but when it came time to swab his hands, he decided that wasn’t going to happen willingly,” Sarty told the court.

At one point during processing, Sparks asked to go to the bathroom, Sarty said. While Sparks was inside, Sarty described hearing “repeated flushing.”

When Sparks left the bathroom, he was no longer wearing the bandages on his hands, Sarty testified. At that point Sarty noticed that Sparks’ wounds would require medical attention, so his injuries were cleaned and sutured, the court heard.

The court also heard from the officer who identified, located and arrested Sparks’s associate, Samanda Ritch. Const. Jeff Patriquin told the court Ritch was compliant throughout the arrest process.

The jury also heard from Const. Joey Malcolm, who works in the HRP’s K-9 division. Malcolm described his role in tracking the scent profiles of two suspects who had fled from the rear of the 33 Hastings apartment, using his dog to track the scent through two backyards on a nearby street.

The track led from these backyards, up Hastings Dr., to a church parking lot approximately 150 metres from the Hastings apartment before the dog could no longer find the scent, he said.

Malcolm told the court that while “crashing through” shrubbery at the edge of the two properties, he noticed an orange-handled knife at the base of the bushes.

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The court also heard testimony from RCMP members in the digital forensics units who analyzed data from four phones seized in relation to the case.

The officers demonstrated how data was collected from a Motorola cellphone belonging to Gonzales, plus an iPhone, a Huawei phone and a Blu phone. The records were entered into evidence by the Crown.

The trial is expected to continue with further Crown witnesses Wednesday and is expected to last a total of 19 days.

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

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