Accused’s sudden trip caught girlfriend off guard, murder trial hears

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ST. THOMAS – Jessica Garcia said her boyfriend’s sudden overseas trip caught her completely off guard.

She knew Boris Panovski had an ailing sister in Macedonia and he’d been talking for months about going to see her. But she never expected to see him off at Pearson airport hours after he broke the news he was leaving, with a ticket bought that morning and a plan to stay for two to six months.

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Some odd things happened in the days before he flew to eastern Europe: the changing of his vanity licence plates on his Toyota Corolla, his urge to go goose hunting and his late arrival to see her on Sept. 13, 2014, two days before his sudden trip.

“I got like, shock. I was not expecting that,” she testified Monday at Panovski’s Superior Court retrial.

Garcia, 54, is a key Crown witness who told court about her three-year relationship with Panovski and his unusual behaviour the weekend a Toronto-area businessperson and his wife were shot at field dog trials near Clinton in Huron County.

Panovski, 79, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and attempted murder at the retrial that began late last month. Donato Frigo, 70, a field dog hobbyist, was killed at the Hullett Provincial Wildlife Area, north of Clinton, on Sept. 13, 2014. His wife Eva Willer Frigo was wounded.

Panovski, a former dog breeder and barber, had a jury trial on the charges in 2018 in Goderich. He successfully appealed the verdicts and a new trial was ordered moved to St. Thomas last year.

But there is no jury hearing the retrial. Days before a jury was to be picked, Panovski opted for trial by judge alone. Superior Court Justice Marc Garson is hearing the evidence.

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The Frigos were riding horses through the wildlife area after the annual field dog trials had ended. The Crown has described the couple being “ambushed” and has set out to prove that Panovski had a deep-seated grudge against Frigo over Panovski’s loss of reputation in the field dog world.

Garcia, a Philippines native who works as a caregiver, met Panovski at a dance hall in June 2011 and was in a relationship with him until September 2014 when he was charged with the homicide.

Garcia lived with her sister in North York, but from February 2013 to June 2014, she lived with Panovski at his Scarborough one-bedroom apartment. If they weren’t living together, she and Panovski spent weekends together and spoke daily on the phone.

She said she’d either take the bus to his house, or he’d pick her up in his black Jeep or blue Toyota Corolla with vanity licence plate 2 NAT CH, marking the two national field dog championships he won in 2005. He was proud of them, she said.

The first weekend of September 2014 , Garcia said she took the bus to the gas station near Panovski’s apartment where he was waiting. She immediately noticed the car had different licence plates. Panovski told her he simply wanted to make a change.

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The next weekend, the Frigos were shot. Garcia said she bused to Panovski’s apartment on Friday, Sept. 12, 2014. She watched TV while Panovski was on his computer, looking at Facebook and American Field, the field dog magazine, she said.

Next morning, they got up and he picked up his suit at the dry cleaners for church. She had to work, so Panovski was to drive her to her sister’s residence at noon. Panovski, she said, said he was going goose hunting.

In the apartment elevator, she said he asked him where his gun was. He told her he’d packed the gun in the car and gave her a garbage bag containing a long camouflage coat to carry. At the car, she saw the Toyota’s windows had been tinted, a sudden change even though he’d talked about doing it months earlier.

Panovski drove her home and they planned to go dancing if he was back at about 7 p.m. He didn’t call until 8:20 p.m. and Garcia said she was already in bed.

Panovski was outside her apartment. She met him and said “the first word I say to him is ‘Where is the geese?’ He said he didn’t see any.”

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He asked her if she wanted to go dancing, but Garcia said she told him it was too late and she had to work the next day. Then he said something strange that she didn’t understand, she said.

“He said, ‘Check the time.’ If someone ask you what time I am here,” she said. “I said why. He didn’t answer and he says, ‘I will go.’ ”

Panovski left and she called him an hour later to see if he was home safe. He was at a gas station.

She checked in by phone Sunday morning and late afternoon when he was having coffee with a friend. And on Monday, when she asked if she could come over, he initially said no.

But she said Panovski called her at 5 p.m. to ask when she was getting off work. “I can’t wait for you,” he told her.

“I asked why and he said, ‘I go back home,’ ” Garcia said. His flight to Macedonia was at 10 p.m. and it was the first time he’d mentioned the trip. Garcia said she took the bus to a Tim Horton’s near Panovski’s house, where he met her and asked a cabbie to follow them to his apartment.

He’d bought new luggage that morning and asked Garcia to deliver his rent cheque and post a letter to his insurer.

Then they drove to the airport in silence, “I’m just holding his hand,” Garcia said. “I’m crying. He’s going for two to six months. That’s a long time.”

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Later that week, she saw a news report saying there was a Canada-wide warrant for Panovski’s arrest. Shocked that he was wanted by the police, she went to a Toronto police station near her house and gave a statement.

Court also heard from Jeff Gibson, a Clinton-area man who recalled seeing a suspicious car that he believed was a Toyota, with tinted windows and open trunk, parked on the rural road leading to his parents’ farm not far from the wildlife area on Sept. 13, 2014.

He saw a man in a long camo coat, blue jeans and tuque, who put his hand up to his face as he drove by, Gibson said. He described the man as fit, in his 40s, five-foot-10 and 190 to 200 pounds. with short brown hair.

The defence cross-examination of Garcia continues Tuesday.

jsims@postmedia.com

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