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Defence lawyer Sarah Runyon stated the Crown’s case towards Damien Medwedrich depends on circumstantial proof and the testimony of an unreliable witness
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The killing of 26-year-old Alex Knatchbell on Humpback Highway 4 years in the past may have been a theft gone unsuitable, the defence lawyer for the person on trial for first-degree homicide argued Tuesday.
In closing arguments, felony defence lawyer Sarah Runyon stated the Crown’s case towards Damien Medwedrich depends on circumstantial proof and the testimony of an unreliable witness who has motivation to lie.
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A key Crown witness whose id is protected by a publication ban has testified Medwedrich requested for his assist shopping for medicine, then got here to his mom’s home to choose him up and use his cellphone to rearrange a purchase order from Knatchbell, a recognized drug supplier.
The 2 then drove to Humpback Highway to fulfill Knatchbell, the place the witness heard pictures, he testified.
Knatchbell’s physique was discovered within the driver’s seat of his Pathfinder by first responders round 11:35 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2020. He had been shot within the arm, neck and torso and died from a number of gunshot wounds.
Runyon stated there’s no dispute over whether or not Medwedrich and the witness travelled to Humpback Highway in Medwedrich’s automobile and have been on the scene of the capturing. What’s in dispute is whether or not Medwedrich was the shooter, and whether or not the killing was deliberate and deliberate, she stated.
Runyon requested Justice Veronica Jackson to think about the Crown’s key witness a “Vetrovec” witness within the judge-alone trial, that means he’s an unsavoury and disreputable witness whose testimony requires particular scrutiny.
A Vetrovec witness consists of individuals who can’t be trusted to inform the reality based mostly on their amoral character, felony life-style, previous dishonesty or curiosity within the consequence of the trial, she stated.
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“This can be a witness who has lied to the police, has lied to this court docket, has a motive to mislead absolve himself of legal responsibility, and for all of these causes needs to be handled as a Vetrovec witness,” Runyon stated.
She stated the witness minimized his relationship with Knatchbell and feigned an absence of reminiscence in response to “nearly each query” put to him till he was proven his police assertion.
Whereas the proof of a single witness is ample to assist a first-degree homicide conviction in Canada, if the guilt of the accused rests solely on a Vetrovec witness, “the hazard of a wrongful conviction is especially acute,” Runyon stated.
The proof introduced by the Crown is extra in line with a theft gone unsuitable than a deliberate capturing, she stated.
“This was a plan to do one thing. The defence concedes as a lot. Nevertheless it seems on the entire of the proof extra probably that this was a plan to rob,” she stated.
A video recorded on the witness’s cellphone as Medwedrich drove them away from Humpback Highway, by which Medwedrich seems to be pinning the capturing on the witness, is missing context, as a result of it’s not recognized who Medwedrich was talking to or what occurred earlier than or after the dialog, Runyon argued.
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She learn from a transcript of the video: “That’s why I took him out to Sooke. In the event that they pinged his cellphone, he was in Sooke and now I’m taking him residence. I’m dropping off.”
The dialogue says nothing about who shot Knatchbell, she stated.
“To convict on the idea of this witness, alongside this fragmented video, is, within the defence’s submission, the breeding floor for a wrongful conviction in relation to first or second-degree homicide,” Runyon stated.
The Crown is predicted to start closing arguments Wednesday afternoon.
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