Woman testifies about ex-husband's relationship with Katherine Janeiro in 1994 murder trial

Bruce Ellis sat in a Barrie courtroom on Tuesday as his ex-wife testified about her former spouse's relationship with a young mother who was found dead in her apartment 30 years ago.

Ellis, also known as Robert MacQueen, is on trial for the death of Katherine Janeiro in 1994.Katherine Janeiro's body was discovered in her Barrie, Ont., apartment on Oct. 10, 1994. (Supplied)

Ellis' ex-wife told the courtroom she and her then-husband lived across from Janeiro's Dunlop Street apartment and that he claimed he was just friends with the 20-year-old woman.

She said Ellis denied being in a relationship with Janeiro but often stayed at the young woman's apartment when the couple would fight and when they separated.

"He did tell me he had a key," she stated.

The witness shared how she ran into Janeiro at a downtown Barrie bar weeks before her death.

"She stopped me and said she was pregnant with Bruce's baby," she told the courtroom, adding it shocked her to learn they had been sleeping together, so she lied and told Janeiro he'd had a vasectomy.

She said Janeiro was found dead inside her basement unit roughly two to three weeks after that encounter.

The woman then told the court of rumours Janeiro had spread among friends, claiming Ellis contracted AIDS after sleeping with an exotic dancer.

She testified her ex-husband told her to say very little to the police and not to tell them about the rumours out of concern for his reputation.

"He didn't want police to know about the AIDS comment because he didn't want people to think that he had AIDS," she noted, describing how he would become angry over the rumours.

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The court also heard from witness Paul Daigle, who admitted to being in Janeiro's apartment the night her body was discovered with multiple stab wounds.

A neighbour who often used Janeiro's phone found her body face down on her bedroom floor.

Daigle testified that when he realized Janeiro was dead, he and a biker named Woody, who the court heard Janeiro sold drugs for, wiped their fingerprints from inside the unit.

The defence pointed to Daigle, suggesting he had blood on his hands from moving her body from the bathroom to her bedroom. He denied any involvement.

Daigle testified he didn't call 911 when he saw Janeiro's body because "she was pretty dead," but said he later went to the police station to give a statement.

The Crown previously told the court the Daigle and Woody were in Janeiro's kitchen looking for cough syrup.

Bruce Ellis is charged with second-degree murder and maintains his innocence.