Colin Asseltine did not know he was giving a ride to two strangers who would eventually be charged with shooting at an RCMP crew cab during a high-speed chase.

Christopher Cornell, 31, and Jessica Johnson, 22, are charged with attempting to murder Haines Junction RCMP Cpl. Kim MacKellar and Shane Oakley by shooting at them during an early-morning chase along the Alaska Highway two years ago.

Only Cornell is on trial, which began Monday with jury selection and is scheduled for three or four weeks.

Asseltine identified the man seated in the prisoner's dock inside the courtroom as the man he gave a ride to.

An employee with the Talbot Arm Motel in Destruction Bay, Asseltine was on his weekly run to Whitehorse for supplies with the motel's one-ton cube van.

Motel cook Ryan Stewart was on his day off, and was catching a lift because he had some business to look after in Whitehorse.

About halfway to Haines Junction, they noticed a black SUV about 10 of 15 metres off the Alaska Highway, parked nose-first up against the tree line on the highway right-of-way. Its lights were still on, Asseltine told the Yukon Supreme Court jury Thursday.

Asseltine and Steward agreed it looked like a fresh accident, and that they should check it out.

So Asseltine turned around and went back.

Both the driver's and passenger's doors were open and the vehicle had no rear window, but there was nobody in the vehicle.

After assuring themselves nobody there was injured, they walked back to the cube van.

Asseltine testified he was outside the van having a smoke, standing next to Stewart, when they heard rustling in the bush quite a ways away. A man carrying a rifle and a woman walked out.

Asseltine said they told him they were out hunting, and had run into problems with their vehicle.

He offered them a ride, which they accepted, but they didn't want to go to the health centre or the RCMP detachment in Haines Junction, he testified.

Rather, they wanted a lift to the Pine Lake Campground, where the man said his brother was staying.

Asseltine said he was told the man's brother owned the SUV and there was meat in the vehicle they wanted to take care of immediately.

He testified he was a little concerned when he saw the man walk out of the bush with a rifle, but felt more at ease when he was told they were out hunting. He said he was never completely comfortable.

Stewart testified he didn't want anything to do with the pair. One of the reasons he was going to Whitehorse was to deposit two years' worth of tips, about $3,000 in cash.

Giving a ride to a stranger with a rifle was not sitting well with him, he told the jury Thursday.

Both Asseltine and Stewart testified the man and woman seemed hyper, maybe even high on something, the woman more so than the man.

There wasn't much talk on the way into Haines Junction.

As they drove, Asseltine and Stewart started noticing all kinds of debris on the highway, such as power tools and a generator.

The two strangers were in the back with a couple of bags and a jug of juice they'd retrieved from the SUV. The man still had his rifle.

When they got to the Junction, Asseltine turned left at the intersection and started toward Whitehorse.

He hadn't gone far when he noticed Wade Istchenko in his truck behind them, flashing his lights, as if to signal to pull over.

Asseltine said he stopped and got out to meet Istchenko, who was then on the campaign trail to become the next MLA for the Kluane riding and eventually a Yukon Party cabinet minister.

Istchenko, said Asseltine, told him the police wanted to talk to him because they were looking for two people involved in a shooting, and they wanted to know if he'd seen anything on the way.

Asseltine told Istchenko he had two strangers in the back, and that they wanted to go to the Pine Lake Campground, located about two kilometres down the highway.

The man with the rifle stuck his head out and asked if he had time for smoke. Asseltine said no; that they intended to get going right away.

He left Istchenko, got back into the truck and said something about Istchenko running for office and wanting to talk politics.

Stewart testified he knew Asseltine was "spooked” about something when he got back in the cube van.

They play a lot of poker together, and Asseltine sometimes gets a little twitch when he plays, he told the jury.

"It was going a mile a minute when he got back in the van,” said Stewart.

They drove to the entrance of the Pine Lake Campground. All four had a smoke outside the van, and then the two passengers walked down the road into the campground.

It was only then that Asseltine told Stewart what was going on.

They waited for a little while to ensure the couple would not see them turn around and head back to the Junction.

Asseltine and Stewart immediately drove to the RCMP detachment.

Asseltine testified the couple had left behind a juice jug in the van. He said the jug shown to him court yesterday looked like the one they'd left behind.

The jury has heard evidence of how Cpl. Kim MacKellar and deputy conservation officer Shane Oakley became involved in a high-speed chase after responding to a call of a break-in occurring at Madley's General Store.

As they chased a black SUV down the Alaska Highway toward Haines Junction, the SUV began driving in the opposite lane, and things began flying out the rear passenger door (see story above).