Landlord testifies murder victim feared accused
Shaila Bari asked landlord to change locks, put iron bars on windows for her own safety

FREDERICTON A murder victim's landlord testified she asked him to improve security in her apartment building because she was scared of her ex-husband.

Filip Vanicek said he managed the apartment building/rooming house where Shaila Bari lived.

Shaila Bari was murdered last summer.

Her estranged husband, Abdul Bari, 36, of Fredericton, is on trial before a jury of eight men and four women, charged with first-degree murder.

The Crown alleges Abdul Bari killed his wife in the early hours of July 16, 2003, in her apartment at 773 Regent St.

Vanicek said the victim had approached him after she separated from her husband.

He told the court she asked him to change the locks on her apartment door and the exterior door, to install a doorbell and to place iron bars on the windows.

"She said it was to keep Abdul away, I guess," he said. "She said it was for her protection."

Vanicek said he changed the locks and installed a doorbell, but he refused to put iron bars on the windows.

"I said to her I didn't think it was a good idea to put iron bars on the windows," he said, adding he believed it would be contrary to fire codes.

He said she packed paper and tin foil over the large window in the kitchen of her apartment. Vanicek said he believed she did so because of Abdul Bari.

Vanicek said Shaila Bari and Abdul Bari lived in the building together for a couple of years before they separated in 2002.

Abdul Bari did outdoor work around the building for him, Vanicek said, including mowing the front and back yards.

Shaila Bari liaised with tenants and collected rent, he said. She continued to act in that capacity when she was living there alone, he said.

"Shaila helped look after the place."

Vanicek also testified he stopped by the building the morning of July 18, 2003, because Shaila Bari had called him a week earlier. She was having problems with her toilet.

He said he rang the doorbell to her apartment but got no response.

Vanicek also testified he left an angry note in Shaila Bari's mailbox on that occasion because he was upset that a storage area for which she had a key was left unlocked.

In a police videotape of the crime scene shown in court Tuesday, a note could be seen in the mailbox.

Vanicek told defence lawyer Randy Maillet that Shaila Bari always wanted the exterior door to the building locked.

"Oh, she was very diligent about locking the doors," he said.

She had posted a notice telling other tenants to keep it locked, he said.

"The tenants would leave it unlocked, often open," Vanicek said.

Cpl. Jacques Boucher, of the RCMP's technological crime unit, took the stand yesterday.

He established part of the timeline of Shaila Bari's final hours by providing information about the use of her laptop computer.

Boucher said the laptop was last used on the night of July 15 and the early morning hours of July 16, 2003.

The laptop was turned on at 10:30 p.m. that night and manually shut down at 1:17 a.m.

Several other witnesses were called to testify to the timeline of Shaila Bari's last day alive and those that followed.

People who called her cellphone after the alleged time of the murder testified they received no answer. Those who visited her apartment said there was no response to knocking at the door or ringing the doorbell.

Peter and Joseph Allaby, father and son, testified they mow the field area behind 763 Regent St., a property owned by Peter Allaby's brother.

That field is where key pieces of evidence were found in August and September 2003.

The Allabys said the areas where yellow gloves stained with the victim's blood and a prybar suspected to be connected to the crime were not ones they mowed.

Volunteers with York Sunbury Search and Rescue told the jury how those pieces of evidence were found.

James Gillis said he found the gloves within minutes of starting a search on the morning of Aug. 31, 2003. Russell Sweezy said he happened upon the prybar during another search Sept. 27.

Const. Michael Barry and Const. Dana Roberts took the witness stand yesterday afternoon to introduce a number of exhibits into evidence.

Among them were the yellow gloves, stained with the victim's blood, found near the crime scene, two pairs of similar, apparently unused gloves, records from a food supply company in Moncton, Shaila Bari's cellphone records and a transaction record from Canadian Tire store on Smythe Street.

Presumably, that transaction record pertains to the Mastercraft prybar that was found.

In her opening statement Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Hilary Drain said the Crown would prove Abdul Bari had purchased the prybar the afternoon before the murder.

Drain told Justice Judy Clendening yesterday the Crown only had three witnesses to present today, and their testimony would probably wrap up this morning.