Only good that came from the police surveillance was that Derek was behaving himself

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
PROVINCE - OCTOBER 27th 2011 - KEITH FRASER
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Former friend testifies accused murderer Jean Ann James ‘very angry’ with husband


A former friend of Jean Ann James says the accused murderer was “very angry and upset” about her husband’s affair with murder victim Gladys Wakabayashi.

James, 72, has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Wakabayashi, 41, in June 1992 in Vancouver.

It’s the Crown’s theory that James slit the throat of Wakabayashi, the daughter of a Taiwanese billionaire, after she learned of the affair.

Sandra MacDonald, a friend of James, told a B.C. Supreme Court jury in Vancouver that she occasionally met James for lunch meetings.

Under questioning from Crown counsel Kerr Clark, MacDonald said James quite often brought up the subject of her troubled marriage to Derek James.

“It was very stormy,” MacDonald said of the marriage. “He had been having affairs and she was very hurt and very angry about his behaviour.”

Asked by Clark whether there were any particular people mentioned by James, MacDonald said that the accused mentioned a woman named Gladys.

“She said Gladys was a friend of hers as well as Derek and that he had had an affair with her,” said the Crown witness during testimony Thursday.

“What was her demeanor,” asked Clark.

“She was very angry and upset,” replied MacDonald.

The witness said that at some point she received a visit from detectives who said they were investigating a murder and wanted to know if she knew James.

A short time later, maybe a week, she received a phone call from James asking whether she’d been contacted by homicide detectives, said MacDonald.

James told her that she was involved as a murder suspect and that the police had been “making her life hell” and had been following her and talking to her family.

“She wanted to give me a heads up that they may be calling,” said MacDonald.

“What was your response,” said Clark.

“I was quite taken aback,” said MacDonald. “I believe we didn’t want to get into too much over the phone, so we did arrange to meet after that call.”

MacDonald said that she subsequently met with James for lunch at the New Westminster quay.

“She told me she’d been accused of the murder of Gladys, her friend, and that Derek had had an affair with her, how awful her life had been, that police had been following her.”

MacDonald said James told her that the only good that came from the police surveillance was that Derek was behaving himself.

MacDonald explained that she met James, a former nurse and flight attendant union executive, through a mutual friend and knew her for several years.

“She was always very well dressed, very well put together whenever I met her.”

Under cross-examination from James’ lawyer, Raj Basra, MacDonald admitted she didn’t recall the date of the lunch where the murder investigation was discussed.

She also conceded that she had not taken any handwritten notes of the meeting.

Basra suggested that James actually told MacDonald that other people had told James that her husband was having an affair with Gladys.

“No, she definitely told me herself he was having an affair with Gladys,” replied MacDonald.

On Wednesday, the Crown played a videotaped confession to the murder made by James following a year-long undercover police operation in 2008. James had been a suspect during the initial police investigation but no charges were laid at that time, court heard.