In Mark Twitchell's first interview with police, the St. Albert man was happy to talk about his movie career at great length, while remaining mystified that a missing man had told friends he was going to meet a woman at his rented garage.
A video of that interview was shown to the jury in Twitchell's first-degree murder trial Wednesday afternoon.
Det. Mike Tabler, a 36-year veteran of the Edmonton Police Service, interviewed Twitchell in the early hours of Oct. 19, 2008 shortly after police went to the southside garage he was renting for his movie project.
Read a transcript of the interview.
Police have alleged Twitchell killed Johnny Altinger at that garage after luring him there by posing as a woman through the online dating service www.plentyoffish.com.
During the interview, Twitchell appears relaxed and even chatty with the officer, explaining his plans for a career in film and the steps he had taken to secure financing for the comedy Day Players.
Twitchell said he would soon be starting production on a comedy with a "real budget" of about $3.5 million, financed through investors and a still unapproved grant from the Alberta government.
He said he loved filmmaking and wanted to make it his full-time career.
"It is tough, it is really hard but it is really worth it."
Read Twitchell's written statement to police.
At times Twitchell also talked about his daughter, his previous marriage, his time living in the United States and a bankruptcy he had gone through.
Twitchell also talked about the film shot at the garage, House of Cards, which he described to Tabler as a suspense thriller.
Tabler told Twitchell it seemed unusual that they were looking into a missing persons case at the same location where he had filmed such a movie.
Twitchell agreed it seemed strange.
"That's really freaky, too, and as soon as they called me on the phone, as soon as [Const. Christopher] Maxwell called me and said that, you know, this is what's going on, I got this weird chill."
Twitchell said he had been back to the garage several times since the late-September movie shoot, but had no idea why a man would come to his garage to meet a woman and reported he had not seen anyone there.
When he and Maxwell arrived at the garage there was a padlock on the door Twitchell said he didn't recognize and speculated that whoever had met Altinger at the garage might have placed it there.
Bizarre story
Tabler testified it was well after 4 a.m. when Twitchell left the police station, but he did send the detective an email the next day.
In that email, which was submitted as an exhibit, Twitchell explains how a strange man, also named Mark, offered to sell him a car, a red Mazda 3 vehicle, for whatever he had on him.
The email says the man told Twitchell he had a "sugar momma that was going to buy him a new BMW."
He said he was naturally suspicious, but the man was very convincing and agreed to give Twitchell the car for just the $40 he had on him. He said because he didn't drive a manual transmission he asked a friend to drive it to his house and hold on to it for a few days.
Police later seized that same vehicle and discovered it was Altinger's.
The trial continues on Thursday.
