Jun 02, 2009 - 03:34 PM

By Jeff Mitchell

WHITBY -- Jurors viewed reams of phone records Tuesday as the Crown continued to build its case against the man accused of murdering a trucker whose body was found almost three years ago in Pickering.

The records are part of what is a largely circumstantial case against Paul Cyr, whom the Crown contends killed Donald Woods with a shotgun blast to the back of the head before stealing the Brockville-area trucker's cargo of air-chilled chicken. Mr. Woods was found dead in the sleeper compartment of his rig behind the Wal-Mart store on Brock Road June 23, 2006.

Mr. Cyr, 51, of Montreal, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and theft over $5,000.

A significant aspect of the prosecution's case is showing the jury evidence that Mr. Cyr was in Belleville on June 21, 2006, at the truck stop where Mr. Woods was last known to have been before he went missing. The Crown has produced video images showing Mr. Cyr at the truck stop and jurors have heard evidence Mr. Woods, 35, was considering joining JC Drivers, the Montreal-based firm operated by Paul Cyr's brother, Jacques.

Jacques Cyr testified as a Crown witness and told jurors Paul Cyr was to have met Mr. Woods to obtain documents related to employment around the time the trucker was killed.

"I remember Paul telling me he was supposed to meet Donald Woods to obtain a driver's abstract and a driver's profile," Jacques Cyr testified.

Jacques Cyr also told jurors that after Paul missed a delivery on the day Mr. Woods went missing, he phoned to say he was having troubles with his rig's refrigeration unit and was trying to get it fixed. But when Durham homicide detectives starting asking questions in the weeks after the murder, the story changed, he said.

Paul instructed his brother to tell police that on June 22, 2006 he had switched trailers with another driver, taking his friend's load to Toronto while the friend hauled Paul's trailer back to Montreal, Jacques Cyr told the jury.

The new story "was a totally different scenario," Jacques Cyr testified.

The trial, before Superior Court Justice Bryan Shaughnessy and a jury, continues in Whitby.