Nephew of victim says accused removed mask during robbery

The nephew of a Saskatoon man who was fatally stabbed during an alleged drug robbery says he saw one of the men’s faces during the attack.

Tyrone Lafond said he recognized Keith Clarence Napope (but didn’t know his name) when he saw him at the St. Paul’s Hospital Tim Hortons, two months after Johnathon Keenatch-Lafond was stabbed.

Napope, 31, is on trial at Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench for the robbery and manslaughter of Keenatch-Lafond. The jury heard the 35-year-old drug dealer was stabbed in the leg and chest after a group of masked men stormed into his 20th Street apartment on Nov. 17, 2014.

Lafond was with Keenatch-Lafond at the time. He testified that the man he saw standing over his uncle with a knife briefly pulled his face mask down. He said he told police that he later saw the man at the hospital and recognized him from the home invasion, but had to ask around for his name.

Lafond, an admitted methamphetamine user with numerous criminal convictions, said he would sometimes help with the small-scale drug operation that Keenatch-Lafond ran out of his apartment.

On the night of the attack, Lafond said his uncle got a phone call and told him to let some people in through the apartment building’s back door. Not knowing who they were, he opened the door and was “rushed” by four or five men, hit in the head and escorted upstairs to the apartment suite, Lafond testified.

One man was holding two knives while a second man was holding another knife, Lafond told court.

He said one of the armed men guarded him and the other was on top of his uncle, demanding drugs and money, which he eventually found.

Lafond said he saw the man with two knives stab his uncle in the leg before leaving the apartment.

Defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle asked Lafond why he left the crime scene before police arrived.

Lafond admitted he would have been an important witness, and said he regretted subsequently avoiding police.

Pfefferle suggested Lafond behaved that way because he and his uncle had robbed Napope earlier that night.

Lafond said that wasn’t the case. During cross-examination, Lafond said he was not lying when he told a police officer in November 2014 that he did not see any of the intruders remove their masks.

He also told police he didn’t know who was responsible for his uncle’s death.