Former escort kept quiet out of fear, court told

While she contends she had ample time to warn Alex Fraser he was in danger, a former prostitute testified Friday she was too scared to speak up before luring the man to his death.

“As you were driving along the parkway, at any time, you could have warned Alex,” defence counsel George Walker told Victoria Harvey in a Superior Court of Justice in Welland. “He was sitting two, three feet away from you.”

“I didn’t think about that at the time. But, I do wish I did,” the 23-year-old replied.

Walker suggested she kept quiet that night and frequently lied to police in order to “save her own skin.”

“You don’t care about anyone but yourself,” added Walker, who represents Tom Nagy, 26.

Nagy, together with Duran Wilson, 30, and Brad MacGarvie, 26, all from Niagara Falls, are charged with first-degree murder in connection with Fraser’s death. They have pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Fraser, a 49-year-old Niagara Falls man, vanished Boxing Day 2014 after his car was found engulfed in flames along the Niagara Parkway in Fort Erie. His body was discovered a few months later floating in the water near the Sir Adam Beck Generating Station.

Harvey testified Thursday that Fraser, a driver for an illegal cab company, was a close friend who would drive her to meet clients.

She said she had no idea Fraser was going to be killed when she and her mother, who also worked as an escort, agreed to lure him to remote area along the parkway known as Gonder’s Flats.

Her understanding of the plan was that MacGarvie was going to “drive” Fraser out of Niagara because he had heard the cab driver was planning to have him beaten up in retaliation for a previous assault.

Under cross examination, Harvey admitted she frequently lied when first questioned by police because she was fearful of MacGarvie, an MMA fighter, and she also didn’t want her mother to go to jail.

“Everyone is scared of Brad MacGarvie,” she said. “Everybody knows what he is capable of doing.”

She said, to her knowledge, Nagy and Wilson were not involved in developing the plan to force Fraser to leave Niagara and she never saw Nagy strike the victim.

When questioned by Wilson’s lawyer, Jordana Goldlist, Harvey said she never observed Wilson striking Fraser and that he appeared upset by what had happened.

Defence lawyer Ron Charlebois, who represents MacGarvie, suggested Harvey was much more complicit in the crime.

“You weren’t an innocent lamb, you were a party to setting up Fraser that night weren’t you,” he asked Harvey.

“Yes,” she replied, but maintained she didn’t expect Fraser to die that night.

Harvey was also originally charged with first-degree murder. She pleaded guilty in February 2017 to the lesser offence of manslaughter and received a four-year sentence. Her mother was never charged with an offence.

The trial, which began in July before Judge Robert Reid, continues Tuesday.