Defence grills witness to attack

Not sure if roommate died from meth or from stomping

In a videotaped statement with police, the roommate of a man who was allegedly injected with crystal meth in an attempt to revive him from an assault says he isn’t sure if it was the drugs or the beating that killed Christopher Schaan.

Paramedics found Schaan unresponsive in a home on Avenue F North in the Mayfair neighbourhood in the early morning of Feb. 13, 2015. He died eight days later after going into a coma, court heard.

Stacey Omer L’Herault, 45, is on trial for second-degree murder. Schaan’s roommate, Dean Spokes, testified Wednesday that he saw L’Herault punch Schaan in the head after Schaan walked downstairs to the basement they shared.

The blow caused Schaan to fall onto the concrete floor, at which point Spokes could no longer see him. He testified he could tell L’Herault was stomping Schaan because of the motion of L’Herault’s body.

Defence lawyer George Combe grilled Spokes about inconsistencies between his testimony at the preliminary hearing and at the trial. At the hearing, Spokes said that he did not know how Schaan ended up on the ground and that he “assumed” Schaan was being stomped.

Combe accused Spokes of not seeing Schaan fall down at all.

“Not true,” Spokes replied during Thursday’s cross-examination. “I know what I seen. I’m not speculating.”

He testified that he does not remember who gave Schaan the meth. Combe said at the preliminary hearing, Spokes said he thought it was the man who lived upstairs.

Combe played the taped police interview with Spokes, recorded a month after the assault, to highlight more inconsistent statements.

Spokes told the officer that a man he ran into while serving jail time for theft was in the basement when Schaan was beat up and “would have seen what happened.” Spokes had offered police the information in exchange for an early release.

On the stand, Spokes testified that only he, Schaan and L’Herault were downstairs when the attack happened, and that the homeowner came downstairs afterwards.

Spokes said at the time he gave the police statement, he believed the fellow inmate had been downstairs after, not during, the assault. He told Combe he now realizes he was wrong.