Nestoruk died after dispute over money and drugs, court hears
A wheelchair-bound man’s body was found at the same Vancouver school where he was partly paralyzed in his teens as a result of a tragic accident, a murder trial heard Monday.
Aaron Dale Power pleaded not guilty Monday to the April 2009 second-degree murder of Michael Nestoruk, 42.
In her opening statement, Crown counsel Nicole Gregoire said Nestoruk was killed in a dispute with Power over money and drugs.
“The Crown’s theory reflects the interconnecting threads of money, drugs, addiction and life on the street,” Gregoire told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper.
“Aaron Power perceived Mr. Nestoruk as having money and drugs. Aaron Power didn’t have money and drugs. The accused was, like Michael Nestoruk, an addict and he was prepared to do anything to get more drugs.”
Gregoire said the slaying happened after the two men had met for the first time, spent the day together with a third man, sharing money and drugs, and then split up.
Nestoruk, who was called “wheels” by some, was last seen on video surveillance leaving a 7-Eleven store and wheeling himself in the direction of the Sir Guy Carleton elementary school at Joyce Street and Kingsway Avenue.
Witnesses heard Nestoruk calling out for Kevin Lazar, the third man in their group, said Gregoire, adding the accused went back to the school grounds where he found the victim alone and vulnerable.
“Mr. Nestoruk accused Power of stealing his drugs. The accused became angry, he lost control and struck Nestoruk twice on the head with the rock, killing him.”
A parent dropping her child off at the school the next day reported to police that she had discovered a bloodied and partially clothed body of a male lying in some shrubs.
The parent also saw a wheelchair in a longjump sand pit and there were what appeared to be blood pools and drag marks from the long jump pit to the location of the body, said the Crown.
Police later found a pair of jeans, a single shoe and a rock with what appeared to be blood on it nearby.
Facial tissues near the body were seized and analyzed and while the accused’s DNA was found on the tissues and the initial investigation focused on Power, traditional investigative methods failed to produce sufficient evidence for a charge, said Gregoire.
In January 2014, police launched a “Mr. Big” undercover operation that resulted in Power confessing to the crime to an officer posing as a crime boss several months later, she said.
Nestoruk, a father of two, had become paralyzed in 1983 when, as a 15-year-old, he had fallen off the roof of the same elementary school. The fall caused a broken back, a severed spinal cord and a crushed heel.
He was confined to a wheelchair initially, but managed to return to school and find work before marrying his high school sweetheart in 1992 and having two children with her.
Court heard Nestoruk could walk with a brace and found work as a courier, but chronic pain and multiple surgeries led to a dependency on cocaine and heroin.
The trial, which is expected to run for several months, began with a voir dire, or a trial within a trial, over the admissibility of the confession.