Defence to call paramedic as first witness at Montsion trial
Const. Daniel Montsion’s defence lawyers will begin their case Wednesday with a brief statement to the court before calling an off-duty paramedic who witnessed Abdirahman Abdi at the Bridgehead café in the moments before police were called on July 24, 2016.
The observations made by paramedic Matthew Rousselle are expected to play a prominent role in the defence case, which will now call its first witness and evidence answering charges of assault with a weapon, aggravated assault and manslaughter in Abdi’s fatal arrest.
The Crown formally closed its case as the trial resumed Monday by filing an agreed statement of facts surrounding video that captured Abdi at the Hintonburg Community Centre that morning, and a map measuring the precise route Abdi took as he fled from police from the café, where court heard multiple women were sexually assaulted, to his 55 Hilda St. home.
Defence lawyers Michael Edelson and Solomon Friedman notified Ontario Court Justice Robert Kelly the revised schedule for the defence case — once expected to be lengthy with numerous subpoenaed witnesses — has now been pared down and “changed for the better.”
The next three weeks had been reserved to hear the defence case.
In its cross-examination of earlier Crown witnesses who encountered Abdi prior to police being called, the defence focused its questioning on Abdi’s physical state that day, asking eyewitnesses about his excessive sweating, bloodshot eyes and his erratic behaviour.
The defence has already suggested Abdi was exhibiting signs of excited delirium, largely through the testimony of Const. Dave Weir, the first officer to respond, who described his attempts to handcuff and subdue Abdi.
The officer testified his kicks, pepper spray and eventual baton strikes had no discernible effect on Abdi, who held a 30-pound road construction weight above his head along the chase to the Hilda Street doorway.
Rousselle, who was inside the café as several patrons intervened in an altercation with Abdi, could provide court with key observations made about Abdi in the moments before police were called and the arrest unfolded.
Pathologist Dr. Christopher Milroy testified earlier that, considering Abdi suffered an 80 per cent blockage in two major arteries, enough stressors were likely present to trigger Abdi’s fatal heart attack that morning before police had arrived.
The trial resumes Wednesday. ahelmer@postmedia.com Twitter.com/ helmera