And so while we have looked at what Vivian Belisle meant to her family and to her profession, she also meant a lot as an eyewitness, in fact, she was likely pivotal in the New Year's Eve double murder that claimed her husband and brother in law, and left her with those multiple injuries - which eventually led to her death.
Reports say she made a statement to police before her death as an eyewitness who saw the shooter. But, now that she is dead, can her statement still be used to lead to a conviction against the accused double murderer, Elmer Nah? We asked an expert in criminal trials, attorney OJ Elrington today:
O.J. Elrington, Attorney-At-Law
"In my opinion the video evidence is not enough because it cannot alone positively identify the perpetrator. They would need to rely on other evidence of which it is my understanding primarily of the primary evidence which they would have relied on to be able to identify who they believe is the accused in this matter is the now deceased and she got a clear view of the person."
"On the good side, however, what I did say was that in law there is what is called a dying declaration and the effect of that is that normally even after you give a statement you must go to court and give that testimony on record before the court and the defense is allowed to cross examine that testimony, and so unless it is that you are alive then obviously it's very difficult. You could have known that the case is a nolle pros because the key witness, and we have heard this over and over where the key witness would have died."
"But in this case regrettably the deceased victim was the person who was under attack and would be one of the person's for whom the perpetrator, the accused would be facing charges and so if certain conditions are satisfied then they can use what would have been her dying declaration."
"They would have at the earliest confidence is when they would have gotten that statement because they knew that at that point in time, time was against them."
"Indeed, it would not hold as much weight as other statements because other stamens as we began by saying that under normal circumstances the defense would have the opportunity to cross-examine the witness on the details of their statement in this case obviously there would be no opportunity for the defense to cross examine her so the judge would not be able to put the same type of wight that they would put to a person going on the stand."
