Jury deliberations underway at manslaughter trial

Victim died from stab wound after masked men stormed into apartment

At the end of a more than weeklong manslaughter trial, a Saskatoon jury has begun deliberating the fate of Keith Clarence Napope, the man accused of participating in a robbery that led to the death of Johnathon Keenatch-Lafond.

The 35-year-old died from a stab wound to the chest on Nov. 17, 2014 after a group of masked men stormed into his apartment suite in the 1400 block of 20th Street West.

The Crown’s theory is that it was a drug robbery “gone wrong,” in that the group did not intend to kill Keenatch-Lafond that night. Napope, who was allegedly holding a knife, cut himself during the struggle, prosecutor Bryce Pashovitz told jurors during Tuesday’s closing arguments.

A knife was never located, but the Crown presented evidence that showed both the victim and Napope’s DNA was found on blood streaks in the hallway, stairwell and on the rear door leading to the back of the apartment building.

Napope testified that he was not involved in Keenatch-Lafond’s robbery but, instead, that he was the victim of a street robbery around the same time. He couldn’t say exactly what day it happened, but that it was sometime after his birthday on Nov. 10 when two men assaulted him on 22nd Street. One of them was wearing a clown mask, he said.

A clown mask was found in the victim’s pocket. Defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle reminded jurors that the victim’s nephew, Tyrone Lafond, admitted wearing it the night his uncle was stabbed.

Lafond testified that the man who was on top of his uncle removed his face mask during the apartment robbery. He said he later recognized the man (identified as Napope) at St. Paul’s Hospital. Video surveillance shows both men at the hospital’s Tim Hortons two months after Keenatch-Lafond’s death.

Pfefferle said Lafond lied on the stand because when he was initially asked if he saw anyone’s face, he told police “no, that’s the (expletive) thing I want. I wish I knew, you know, then I (expletive) definitely would have known who they were.”

Lafond recognized Napope because Lafond is the one who robbed Napope on the street, Pfefferle told the jury. That’s why he stuffed the clown mask into his dying uncle’s pocket and left the scene before police arrived, he argued.

Pfefferle asked jurors to consider that DNA can be transferred from one location to another, reminding them of the defence’s theory that Lafond assaulted Napope around the time Keenatch-Lafond was killed.

Napope’s testimony was “completely self-serving, contrived and fabricated” as a way to explain how his DNA got to the crime scene, Pashovitz argued. He said Napope’s alleged robbery was never reported to police, and there is no evidence that it happened.

Finally, Pashovitz outlined a motive for the crime. He said Napope was an admitted drug addict and it was no secret that Keenatch-Lafond sold drugs out of his apartment. “(Napope) needed drugs. He needed money to buy drugs,” Pashovitz said.

Jury deliberations will continue on Wednesday.

(Napope) needed drugs. He needed money to buy drugs.