The plot, the characters, and the shaved pig: Potter murder trial delves into undercover sting

He ordered wings and beer. Just enough to hold the table at a bar called the Barking Cat on the outskirts of rural Belmont, Ont., for two and a half hours.

Enough time for two men to meet him to discuss a job that had to be taken care of a dead body he left tucked away near a tree line in a corn field about five minutes away.

Around 9:20 p.m. on Sept. 25, 2016, he met Al Potter.

"I gave him some wings and he thanked me," the man, bald, bearded and wearing a suit, told a 13-person jury Tuesday at Potter's first-degree murder trial at Supreme Court in St. John's.

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"[Potter] proceeded to tell me he just got out of jail ... that he'd gone in for a violent offence, told me that a lot of deals had been offered to him ... I said to him, 'So you're solid?'"

"He said, 'f--kyeah.'"

The man, wearing a black leather jacket and hoodie, blue jeans and black boots, fist-bumped Potter, and stopped the conversation.

On this day, the undercover officer with the RCMP was playing the part of "underling."

Potter had just been released from a jail in Lindsay, Ont., and the court's been told, he was under the impression that he was hired to work with a debt collector, who was in search of two brothers who owed money.

The story, concocted by an RCMP sergeant from St.John's, was that the underling had killed one of the brothers the night beforeand had cleaned up the scene, but needed help disposing the body.

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The purpose of the whole plot was for Potter to feel comfortable enough to reveal details of thevicious stabbing of Dale Porter, 39, in Conception Bay North, on June 29, 2014. Potter was a suspect.

"I was to take them to the body, so I had a van and they had a vehicle and I would lead them to the body, where we would pick it up and after picking up the body a pig wewould follow [thefirst undercover officer] and Potter to another location," the 10-year veteran of the force told the jury.

He did most of the heavy lifting and then after then at the cemetery ... I don't know ifexcited was the right word, but it didn't seem to faze him one bit.- Undercover police officer who played the 'underling'

They drove to a corn fieldabout five minutes away, the location of which was carefully selected by the lead investigator or cover officer as was the Barking Cat and the cemetery where they'd eventually go.

"I brought them to a clump of trees and bush where we staged the bag with the pig inside," he said.

He carefully unzipped the hockey goalie bag, exposing the pig's shaven, bloodied torso to Potter and the purported debt collecting boss.

RCMP officer plays graveyard worker

Unbeknownst to Potter, the police had prepared the "prop" the day before shaving the pig, which weighed by his estimation between 150 to 200 pounds, sliced its torso, and pouredblood on the skin.

Potter seemed calm and eager to help,the officer said, as Potter watched his former acquaintance take the stand against him.

"He did most of the heavy lifting and then after then at the cemetery ... I don't know ifexcited was the right word, but it didn't seem to faze him one bit."

Once the human-sized pig was lifted into the back of the officer's white panel van, the group drove toward a cemetery in London.

They were met at the gate by a purported graveyard worker on a backhoe, wearing work boots and overalls he too was an undercover operative. He also took the stand Tuesday.

"I leaned into [the first undercover officer's] vehicle and said he needed to give me more time next time," the 17-year veteran of the RCMP and undercover coptestified Tuesday morning.

While staying in character, the man led the group of three, including Potter, to a three-foot-deep, pre-dug grave on the undeveloped side of a cemetery.

With Potter doing the heavy lifting, the officer testified, the three men dragged the hockey bag to the hole and dropped it in.

"The overall mood was motivated," he told Crown prosecutor Erin Matthews,"There was a task at hand. Motivated to just get the job done."

What about the sound?

Neither one of the officers the underling or graveyard worker were wearing listening devices, the court was told.

Potter then sent the "scenario" in an unsuspecting direction when he asked for bleach, the first officer testified.

"Thethreeof us washed our hands in the bleach and Potter asked, 'What are wegonnado with our shoes,'" the officer said.

He said they proceeded to bleach the outsides of their shoes, and the officer told Potter, "good idea."

"[Potter] said, 'Well if youleave thetop of the bleach open in the back of the van it will get rid of the smell' and I said 'That's a good idea."

The officer said Potter exhibited a calm focus, but his defence lawyer Randy Piercey questioned the officer on if his client was spooked while walking with the two men in the darkened corn field.

"Did you recall Mr. Potter being startled by a noise?" Piercey asked.

"No I don't. I don't recall any noise."

"Is that something you would necessarily make notes of?" Piercey asked.

The officer responded that he didn't make note of the sound because "I didn't hear any sound in that field."

By the end of the operation that night, the pig was removed from the hole and the grave was filled back in.

The officers retreated and took notes.

Potter spent a night at a hotel in London, unaware that the next day he'd be arrestedby policefor a killing that happened in North River, Newfoundland and Labrador, more than 2,000 kilometres away, two years earlier.

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