HAMILTON — Ron Cyr was spotted kissing his mistress in a parked vehicle just one day after his murdered wife’s funeral, jurors were told Monday.

Det.-Const. Michael Tonin, a member of a police surveillance team, said the couple embraced for more than a minute during a mid-afternoon meeting in an empty parking lot.

“It was a passionate kiss, like lovers, people in a relationship,” he testified.

Nadia Gehl, 28, was shot twice and killed while walking to a bus stop on Feb. 2, 2009 near her Watercress Court house in suburban Kitchener.

Cyr, now 33, had moved out of their home and was living with her parents when Gehl — a toy store manager and part-time veterinary technician — was laid to rest exactly a week later.

The afternoon of the next day, Tonin said, Cyr and Michelle Brown — a student at the Gehl family law firm, where Cyr also worked — met for more than half an hour in his black Jeep.

He testified they appeared to be laughing, talking and looking at a piece of paper, although he also saw Cyr wipes his eyes as if crying at one point.

The meeting took place in the parking lot of the National Sports store on Weber Street in Waterloo, a short distance from the Gehl law office.

Tonin said he then saw Brown walking in the direction of the office. Cyr was seen a short time later at the Gehl family home in Kitchener.

Initially unknown to police while Cyr was being watched early in the investigation, Tonin testified, Brown later became a “person of interest” and a target of surveillance herself.

A legal assistant for Gehl’s uncle, criminal defence lawyer Steve Gehl, Cyr is accused of hiring two longtime friends to kill his wife while he had an alibi at work.

He and his alleged accomplices — Dennis Zvolensky, 27, and Nashat Qahwash, 26 — have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Superior Court in Hamilton.

Jurors also heard Monday from two forensic scientists about DNA found on a handgun and tests that were done that led police to conclude it was the murder weapon.

The old Mauser pistol — likely made in Germany sometime between 1914 and 1934 — was found by police hidden above the basement ceiling of a Kitchener house where Qahwash lived with his parents.

By then, the three suspects had been arrested following a six-month investigation that included an undercover officer who allegedly befriended Cyr while posing as a co-worker at a Kitchener furniture store.

Trevor Claxton, a scientist at the Centre of Forensic Sciences, examined the semi-automatic handgun for blood and other bodily substances.

He testified a sample of DNA — which he described as the “chemical blueprint for life” — was found on its grip or handle.

Claxton said tests showed four of nine key locations on a DNA profile matched those of a sample obtained from Zvolensky.

The probability of a random match, he told jurors, was conservatively calculated at one in 400,000. That means just one in 400,000 people in Ontario would be expected to have the same DNA profile in those four locations.

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Delmar Doucette, who represents Zvolensky, Claxton said there is no way to determine when the DNA linked to his client was left on the gun.

He also testified there were traces of DNA on the gun from at least one other person, although it wasn’t sufficient to develop a profile or do further tests.

Claxton said that people can handle objects without leaving any DNA and that, although unlikely, a person’s DNA can be left on an object without that person actually touching it.

He agreed with Doucette that an indirect transfer of DNA could happen, for example, if someone shook hands with a person who then handled the item in question.

Judy Chin, also a scientist at the Toronto centre, testified that two bullets and three cartridge casings found at the murder scene were all fired by the hidden handgun.

“Very sure,” she answered when asked by Crown prosecutor Julia Forward about the strength of her conclusion.

Chin explained that imperfections and a spiral pattern in gun barrels leave distinct scratch marks on the projectiles fired from them.

“No two (guns) will leave the same marks,” she said.

Chin also did tests to determine how far away the handgun was when Gehl was shot in the left chest and left temple.

Based on patterns left — or not left — by gun powder and other residue, she estimated the fatal head shot was from between three and 28 inches away. The chest shot — which another expert has said came first — was at a distance of more than 15 inches.

Two bullets were found in Gehl’s clothing, one in her bra and the other in her pink tuque, which sported ear flaps and the whimsical profile of an animal on its front.

Since three cartridge casings were found by police, Chin said that likely means one of the shots fired by her killer missed.

An intense affair between Cyr and Brown, and more than $500,000 in life insurance on Gehl, have been raised by Crown prosecutors as possible motives for the Monday morning murder.

Now into its third week, the trial is expected to continue Tuesday with more evidence from surveillance officers.

bcaldwell@therecord.com

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DNA on handgun matched Zvolensky, expert testifies