This is an interesting trial on the Mainland.
The 13-year-old girl who Ibrahim Ali is accused of murdering in a British Columbia park wasn't the “innocent” depicted in a “rose-coloured” portrayal by the Crown at trial, his lawyer says.
Kevin McCullough told a B.C. Supreme Court jury in his closing arguments that the version of the girl's lifestyle presented by the Crown is “at best, a partial picture” or “at worst, a lie.”
He said Crown witnesses who could speak to her character, including the girl's mother, were often not the closest people to the girl and were often contradictory in their testimony about her behaviour.
He said the jury heard testimony that the girl often avoided her mom's phone calls, liked to “endlessly ride SkyTrain” alone and sometimes fell asleep in the park.
https://bc.ctvnews.c...ocent-1.6669743
Prominent Victoria lawyer Kevin McCullough is representing the accused. It'll be interesting to see what the jury comes up with. It certainly cannot help the case that the accused did not take the stand - not that he is required to do so. And I'm not sure if the defence offered up an alternate theory as to how the girl died.
Not sure also how they came to arrest that particular suspect.
How about this twist:
He said the Crown had promised in opening statements that a sexual assault expert would “link the sexual assault to the killing.”
“The Crown either decided not to call the evidence or could not find the expert to say it,” he said.
“Now the Crown is asking you to make the leap in logic without that sexual assault expert.”
The jury did hear from a sexual assault expert who testified that the teen’s injuries strongly indicated that she had been sexually assaulted, but Dr. Tracy Pickett’s testimony under cross-examination was never completed.
Pickett, a specialist in emergency and clinical forensic medicine, was found dead on Sept. 28.
On Nov. 7, Justice Lance Bernard instructed the jury to disregard Pickett’s testimony and to resist all speculation into her death.
https://globalnews.c...sing-arguments/
In the days leading up to her disappearance, she was testifying in a B.C. murder trial.
____________________
Vancouver police said preliminary evidence doesn’t suggest she died of a crime. They would not comment if she died by suicide, adding it is now a BC Coroner Service investigation.
Dr. Khazei said it is unlikely that she would’ve taken her own life.
“She was the medical director of a sexual assault service. She was a champion of helping victims of these horrible crimes gain closure and justice. So to leave a case halfway through that would be really out of character that would really surprise me that she would do that as a choice,” he explained.
Pickett leaves behind her husband and two adult daughters.
https://bc.ctvnews.c...troom-1.6584124
VANCOUVER — Ibrahim Ali's lawyers had a problem.
They couldn't get him to understand a key point — that he was still on trial for the first-degree murder of a 13-year-old girl.
"He's useless to us," defence lawyer Kevin McCullough told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lance Bernard on July 24.
"We might as well have a hologram of the man sitting there. He thinks he's been found not guilty."
It was one of many conversations the jury didn't hear in a trial delayed by months, as the court and lawyers grappled with the mental and physical health struggles of a defendant who is unable to read or write in any language.
There was also the death of an expert witness before she could complete her testimony, cases of COVID-19 and other illness among jurors, and violent threats against Ali's lawyers.
______________________
Police said Ali, who was 28 at the time of his arrest, had arrived in Canada as a refugee from Syria 17 months earlier and had no previous criminal record. He has remained in custody since then.
It took about three years of pretrial proceedings before Ali entered a plea of not guilty on April 5 this year.
It swiftly became clear the trial was facing hurdles.
On April 11, the judge granted an assessment of Ali's fitness for trial after McCullough said his client did not understand the point or consequences of the proceedings. Ali was, he said, "completely unable to communicate" with his lawyers.
McCullough said Ali had a Grade 6 education from Lebanon and was illiterate. He said his client had "serious mental health issues."
He said he had previously been involuntarily hospitalized for mental health issues, and once had booked a trip to Ottawa to see Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, although he never left the airport. He was also on antipsychotic medication.
______________________
McCullough told the judge on several occasions that the defence had been receiving death threats, one of which put the lawyers "in a terrible position," he told Bernard on Tuesday without the jury present.
He said police were investigating the threat and read it aloud in court.
"Your family will suffer before you meet a violent and brutal death. It will happen before Christmas. The last thing you will know is that your family suffers like the child suffered. I am suicidal due to childhood predators looking for someone to cause pain to. I'll burn myself alive. You're it," McCullough read.
As a result, he told Bernard that defence was considering filing an application to drop Ali as its client.
They did not think they could "zealously represent the accused as a result of what are imminent death threats," he said.
But the application was not heard.
On Wednesday, in the trial's final stages, there was one more hitch. McCullough was stuck at home in Victoria — dealing with issues related to the threats — after his helicopter flight to Vancouver was cancelled by bad weather.
Bernard agreed to delay instructing the jury by one day, adjourning until Thursday to allow McCullough to appear in person.
McCullough said by video that he would be there, “short of getting killed.”
https://www.timescol...-delays-7942220
STAY CONNECTED TO VIBRANTVICTORIA
WHAT'S HAPPENING ON CITIFIED VICTORIA
