Scott and Tammie Taplin of Bell Island were woken up in the middle of the night Feb. 10 by the sound of breaking glass outside.
Thinking someone was breaking into their house or garage, they looked out their windows. From the kitchen, Tammie saw a man on the step of the house next door, reaching into the door’s broken window, and letting himself in. She saw shadows moving around the house and eventually a light came on. That’s when she saw the man’s face and recognized him, she told the court Thursday, as James Pendergast.
After calling the police, Tammie said she watched as he turned off the light and left the home, closing the door and then reaching in the broken window to lock it before putting his hands in his pockets and walking down the driveway.
Looking out a different window, her husband Scott had seen the man, too, and also recognized him as Pendergast, whom he had known since they were in school together.
Not knowing if the woman who lived in the house was at home, the Taplins were worried about her.
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“(My husband) was looking out the other window and saw smoke, and he said, ‘I think she’s OK because she’s having a cigarette.’” Tammie testified. “I said, ‘No, she’s not having a cigarette, there’s smoke coming from the eaves.’”
The Taplins then called 911 for the fire department, and Scott went outside with the intention of going into the burning home to check on the woman. Before he had the chance, RCMP Const. Michael Wheeler arrived. He had received a call just before 4 a.m. of a break-in in progress, with Pendergast as the suspect. He wasn’t aware of the fire until he arrived.
After a brief conversation with Scott, he opened the door to the burning house and got on his stomach, pulling himself along the floor and calling the woman’s name. He looked to his left, into a storage room off the living room, and saw a cardboard box on fire.
“At that point I became overcome with smoke and I ran out of the room,” Wheeler testified Thursday.
When he exited the house, the fire department and other first responders had arrived. So had relatives of the woman — who wasn’t home at the time — and they mentioned she owned a dog.
The next day, after speaking to the woman, Wheeler went back to the burned-out home to look for the small, black dog. He found it, dead, under the living room coffee table.
Pendergast, 46, is on trial for break and entry, arson and animal cruelty. He has also been charged with breaching a court order.
The woman who lived in the home also testified at Pendergast’s trial, saying the two had once been in a romantic relationship, but were just friends at the time in question. She said she had visited him the previous day and everything was fine.
Pendergast was serving a four-month house arrest sentence at the time, having been convicted in November of assaulting the woman. His house arrest was revoked when he was arrested on the new charges, and he was taken into custody to serve the remainder of his sentence at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary.
Pendergast had applied for bail in May, but waived the hearing after it got underway.
Two days have been set aside for Pendergast’s trial, which will continue Monday.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
