Edmonton Journal

Final arguments heard in shotgun murder case

- PAIGE PARSONS pparsons@postmedia.com twitter.com/paigeepars­ons

Lawyers on either side of a murder trial pitted inconsiste­ncies in the accused’s police interviews against holes in cellphone tower evidence during closing arguments Monday.

Garrett Michael Oshvalda, 58, is charged with second-degree murder and neglect of a dead body in connection to the death of Allen Neil Wilson.

The two men became roommates on a rural property near Stony Plain in 2014 when Wilson, 18, moved to Alberta from New Brunswick for work.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Allen Neil Wilson died on or about Sept. 18, 2014, though his body wasn’t discovered until Sept. 21 in a rural area near Highway 16 and Parkland Drive, about six kilometres west of the Cougar Creek Golf Resort. Wilson had been shot three times.

In closing arguments Monday, Crown prosecutor Dallas Sopko argued there were inconsiste­ncies in Oshvalda’s police interviews, and that the accused made “admissions of guilt,” saying things like “I feel bad” and “I’ve got to live with this for the rest of my life.”

Sopko also pointed to Oshvalda’s ownership of the exact make of .410 shotgun and brand of ammunition that the medical examiner determined were used to kill Wilson.

Sopko said tension between the two men came to a head when Oshvalda confronted Wilson with a gun and threatened him Sept. 14.

Wilson disarmed Oshvalda and hid the firearm, along with several others. Days later, Sopko argued, Oshvalda’s animosity toward Wilson boiled over when he shot the younger man in the driveway of the farm, then used a truck to transport the body to the site where it was eventually discovered. Oshvalda’s defence lawyer, Eamon O’Keefe, said the circumstan­ces surroundin­g Wilson’s death created “a perfect storm of misinterpr­eting evidence,” arguing the cellphone tower evidence presented by the Crown leaves a four-hour gap in the proposed timeline, and also finding fault in the way blood evidence was presented.

O’Keefe suggested three other men the victim worked with may have been responsibl­e for his death, based on one of the men writing angry text messages about Wilson, and Oshvalda’s descriptio­n of a truck belonging to another of the men arriving at the house.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman is expected to deliver his verdict Wednesday.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada