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Leonard Brian Cochrane said he fled the scene out of fear, which caused him not to report what he saw to the police
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Double-murder suspect Leonard Brian Cochrane said he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when gunmen stormed a southeast Calgary home three decades ago, killing two men.
Cochrane told his Calgary Court of King’s Bench trial he was at the home of drug dealer Barry Buchart, whom he’d just met, when two armed and masked intruders barged in.
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And Cochrane denied suggestions he in fact was one of the two assailants who fatally shot Buchart and his roommate, Trevor Deakins, in the early morning hours of July 11, 1994.
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Cochrane, 54, told defence lawyer Balfour Der that he was leaving a 17th Avenue S.E. convenience store when Buchart approached him asking if he was interested in purchasing drugs.
The accused said he was interested in buying an ounce of marijuana and Buchart provided his 10th Avenue S.E. address.
Cochrane went to his Falconridge residence and then to Buchart’s basement suite.
But he said minutes after he entered, balaclava-wearing intruders stormed in, armed with a shotgun and handgun.
They retrieved Deakins from a bedroom and made all three of them lie on the floor while one of the gunmen looked for cash and drugs in the basement suite before going upstairs.
While that assailant was upstairs, Deakins jumped the shotgun-toting intruder and Cochrane joined in, before the individual called for his accomplice to come help.
Cochrane said he was then knocked unconscious with a blow to his head and as he was coming to, he heard at least one gunshot before the intruders fled.
“I saw Barry and Trevor laying on the floor. It looked like they were dead. I was really scared,” he told Der.
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Cochrane, whose DNA was found at the scene and led to his arrest in December 2020, said he was bleeding heavily from a wound to his head.
He said he fled the scene out of fear.
And he said that same fear caused him not to report what he saw to the police.
“I was afraid to be associated with it and afraid the people that did it would find out who I was,” he said.
But under cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail played excerpts from Cochrane’s interview with police after he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder when arrested Dec. 4, 2020.
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In it, Cochrane repeatedly denied any knowledge of the incident.
At one point a detective suggested Cochrane knew what occurred because he was one of the four people in the suite.
“I don’t have a f—— clue about what happened,” Cochrane said.
“You were in fact one of the intruders, you were not there innocently,” MacPhail suggested.
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“I disagree,” Cochrane said.
MacPhail suggested either Cochrane and his accomplice shot Buchart and the other killed Deakins.
“I disagree,” he repeated.
In re-examination, Der asked his client why he lied to the police.
“I was told not to cooperate with the police by a lawyer and an attorney,” he said.
Justice Keith Yamauchi will hear final arguments in the case on Thursday.
KMartin@postmedia.com
X: @KMartinCourts
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