Accused stabbed Merasty while being choked, trial told

A man on trial in Saskatoon, charged with second-degree murder, says he stabbed David Merasty during a street fight because he feared for his life.

On Friday, Lajray Orlando Redman Gordon testified in his own defence after the Crown closed its case at Court of Queen’s Bench.

Gordon said Merasty was on top of him, choking him, when he pulled a knife out of his pocket and stabbed Merasty once. He said he did not know what part of the victim’s body the knife hit.

“I know I injured him but I had no idea he died,” Gordon testified.

“I just wanted him to stop choking me and get off of me.”

The jury heard Gordon stabbed Merasty in the left side of his body, puncturing his heart. Merasty died in hospital approximately half an hour later.

Merasty and Gordon were strangers when they encountered each other on the corner of 20th Street and Avenue E South on June 18, 2016.

Gordon said his friend, Coquilynn Frenchman, asked Merasty for a smoke and followed it with a rude remark.

They continued on to a home in the 300 block of Avenue E South and realized Merasty had turned around and followed them into the yard, Gordon testified.

He said the man, who was much larger than him, called him the “N” word and a “black b**ch.”

Gordon said they started arguing and he could tell the man wanted to “beat him up.”

They grabbed onto each other and wrestled to the ground before Merasty had his hands around his neck, the accused said.

He knew people were watching, as it was an early Saturday afternoon, he said.

“I didn’t want to kill anyone. I just wanted to get away,” Gordon testified.

He told the jury he ran away because he didn’t know whether the man was affiliated with any gangs. Gordon said gang members had attacked and robbed him in the same neighbourhood a month before the stabbing.

When asked what caused the confrontation, Gordon surmised it must have been the comment Frenchman made, and the fact that he and his friends laughed.

Gordon said they had smoked crystal methamphetamine that morning, but he doesn’t believe he was impaired at the time of the fight.

He said he started using the drug after he moved to Saskatchewan from Jamaica in 2014.

The trial was adjourned until Monday to allow the Crown to prepare for its cross-examination of the accused.