Accused murderer had grudge against man delivering pizza, Crown lawyer tells trial

On Oct. 23, 2010, a man phoned in an order to Panada Pizza in north-end Dartmouth for a pizza and a large Orange Crush. The delivery driver that night was Chad Smith.

Forty-five minutes later, police found the 27-year-old father of twoshot to death on a nearby street, a killinga Crown prosecutor saidTuesday stemmed from an old beef the accusedmurderer had with the victim.

Randy Riley, 27, is on trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax for first-degree murder in the death of Smith and for a weapons charge related to a sawed-off shotgun. He has pleaded not guilty.

In her opening remarks Tuesday to the 14-member jury, Crown attorney Melanie Perry said Smith was found lying on his back on Joseph Young Street with a gunshot wound on his upper right side. He had no pulse. Police found nearby his pizza delivery bag and a large bottle of pop.

A police dog started tracking, but lost the scent. The next day, officers retraced the path of the dog and found a sawed-off, pump-action shotgun concealed in a sewer pipe.

One shell had been fired and one remained in the chamber, Perry said.

Perry said a witness, Paul Smith, who is no relation to the victim, said that before the shooting, his friend Riley had told him he had a problem with a pizza delivery man because hehad allegedly beaten up Riley years before.

Paul Smith drove Riley to Lake Banook to pick up what Smith believed was a gun. Riley was wearing doctors' gloves, and gave a pair to a third man, Nathan Johnson.

After the homicide, Paul Smith was told by Riley that "it had to be done,"Perry told the jury.

She said 20 Crown witnesses are expected to testify at the trial, which is scheduled to last 22 days.

Neighbour, 3 officers recall shooting scene

The first four Crown witnesses testified Tuesday, including a neighbour who living in Apt. 3 at the time the address given for the pizza order.

Donald Manning testified he was at home watching TV on Oct. 23, 2010, and heard a bang so loud, it knocked a clock of his wall.

He jumped off the couch, grabbed a golf club he kept by the door, and looked outside to see a pizza box and a man lying on the ground with blood on his chest.

"I think he might have taken a couple of breaths," he testified. "I assumed he'd been shot."

Court heard Manning covered the man with a blanket while his wife, Christine, called 911. As a recording of that call was played, some of Chad Smith's family left the courtroom.

Under cross-examination, Manning said he didn't see or hear anyone running away from the scene.

Three Halifax Regional Police officers also testified Tuesday, includingDets.-Consts. Michael Barkhouse and Leonard MacDonald, who both responded to the 911 call.

Barkhouse said he arrived to the scene shortly before 9:30 p.m., running toward the sound of loud screaming. He said he saw two men standing over a man lying on the group with a large pool of blood beneath him.

Barkhousebelieved the man was dead. Paramedics arrived about seven minutes later, he said.

Barkhouse said he remained on the scene until early the next morning and returned later that day to conduct a search, though he was not the officer who recovered the sawed-off shotgun.

'Significant' pool of blood

He later testified he also didn't see anyone either running or driving away from the densely populatedneighbourhood.

MacDonald also testified he thought the man was dead when the officers arrived on the scene, mentioning the "significant" pool of blood on the ground.

MacDonald was the officer who accompanied a police dog, Vinnie, and his handler, Const. Jamie Cooke, as the K-9 unit tracked a scent away from the shooting scene toward nearby Albro Lake. Officers later borrowed a pontoon boat from Halifax Fire to search an island on the lake but ultimately didn't find anything.

Cooke, the final witness of the day, testified Vinnie had been "operational" for two months before the shooting and quickly picked up a fresh scent leaving the scene when they arrived.

It was strong, he said, because Vinnie was pulling hard, eventually leading the two officers through a hole in the fence behind the building and into the woods.

The dog briefly lost the scent, he said, and then picked it up again and led them toward Albro Lake.

The team ultimately didn't find anything that night, Cooke said.

On mobile? Follow a recap of Blair Rhodes'slive blog of the proceedings here.