As he was being taken to a waiting ambulance on Aug. 3, 2011, Joshua Tyler Bredo asked about the welfare of friend Daniel Jordan Levesque.
Both men had been found injured in a Cormorant Street condominium, and Bredo was the first one taken to hospital.
Levesque was also rushed to hospital, where he died.
Bredo is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of Levesque, along with sexual assault and unlawful confinement. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday, Victoria police Const. Wayne Cox, who accompanied Bredo and the paramedics inside the ambulance, said he found Bredo to be alert and coherent during the ride, but also noted another question from him.
“I heard Mr. Bredo ask: ‘Where’s the president?’ ” Cox testified in front of the six-man, six-woman jury hearing the trial.
He later told defence lawyer Tim Russell he did not know what Bredo meant.
Russell questioned whether Bredo could be considered coherent in light of that, with Cox replying he used the word “coherent” because Bredo seemed able to respond to the paramedic tending to him. Cox said Bredo also responded to a question about what happened in the condominium by saying he got into a fight.
Last week, the court heard a man identifying himself as Bredo say in a 911 call that Levesque had stabbed him and that he had retaliated by hitting him in the head.
After receiving hospital treatment, Cox said, Bredo was taken to the police station. He said Bredo walked on his own to the police car that transported him.
The original charge of second-degree murder against Bredo was stayed in December 2011 because of a lack of evidence.
Charges of first-degree murder were laid in December 2012. The charges of sexual assault and unlawful confinement were added in December 2013.
Levesque had arrived in Victoria from Revelstoke, a city of about 8,000 in the B.C. Interior, about two months before he died. Bredo employed Levesque at a downtown 7-Eleven convenience store he managed, and the pair spent considerable time together outside work.
