Planned murder or ‘perfect storm’ accident?
Lawyers give their closing arguments at Brandon Phillips murder trial in St. John’s
One side called it a planned and deliberate murder, made clear by the “ghastly luxury” of surveillance footage.
The other side called it a “perfect storm accident” with nothing but circumstantial evidence to prove otherwise.
It will soon be up to the six women and six men of the jury to decide which facts to accept and which to cast aside in the case of Brandon Phillips, whose murder trial wrapped up in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in St. John’s Monday morning.
Crown prosecutors Mark Heerema and Shauna Macdonald, and defence lawyers Mark Gruchy and Jeff Brace gave their closing arguments to the jurors Monday, each side urging them to consider a different interpretation of the evidence presented over the past month by 15 witnesses.
Phillips, 29, is accused of firstdegree murder, armed robbery, wearing a disguise with the intention to commit a crime, and possessing a weapon dangerous to the public in connection with the incident that left Larry Wellman, 63, dead on Oct. 3, 2015.
Wellman and his wife were having a drink and playing the VLTS in the bar of the Captain’s Quarters hotel in St. John’s when a masked man, armed with a sawed-off shotgun, entered and demanded money from the lone bartender. Wellman attempted to intervene and was fatally shot.
Heerema referred the jury to video footage of the shooting captured by the hotel’s surveillance cameras.
“In life, we use pictures and videos to capture memories we want to preserve: weddings, anniversaries, proms, babies born,” he said.
“Cameras don’t lie. Cameras don’t feel stress. For (Wellman’s) family, perhaps the cruellest element of this case is that Mr. Wellman’s death is captured on video. It’s likely to be a source of pain for them for years to come. But for you, it’s a ghastly luxury.”
Heerema played the video — which the jury saw a number of times during the trial — again, pausing and replaying it at certain points.
“Buddy, this one’s f---ing loaded,” the gunman is heard saying to Wellman at one point. Heerema told the jury this was Brandon Phillips referencing his plan to kill.
“Listen, listen — how do you want to do it, man? I need the f--ing money,” the gunman says in another clip.
“Save your husband. Save his life,” he tells Wellman’s wife at another point.
“I’m going to f---ing shoot you,” the gunman tells Wellman in another clip Heerema replayed for the jury. “No, you’re not going to shoot me,” Wellman replies. “No?” answers the gunman.
Heerema also showed the jury the part in the video where Wellman is shot, and the gunman’s reponse: “Now!” he says, stepping over Wellman, who is lying, bleeding, on the ground.
“That yelling of ‘Now!’ should reverberate throughout your deliberations,” Heerema told the jurors. “Where’s the shock in the masked gunman? We do not see any apparent concern. This was the necessary consequence of an armed robbery when someone’s not going to let you do it. To accept that this was an accident, I suggest to you, would require you to suspend your common sense. That’s not why you’re here.”
Holding the plastic-wrapped sawed-off shotgun recovered from the Quidi Vidi Road apartment where Phillips reportedly lived, Heerema reminded the jurors that the robber’s gun had been loaded. He could have chosen to bring an unloaded gun instead, Heerema said, or a baseball bat or a note.
“I’m going to suggest to you, ladies and gentlemen, that when Mr. Phillips entered with a mask on and a sawed-off, concealable shotgun that was loaded, he was declaring that he was in it ’til the end. Ask yourself who or what was that round of live ammunition for. For a victory shot in the parking lot afterwards? What was the intention of that?”
Heerema noted both Phillips’ and Wellman’s DNA was found on a pair of sneakers seized by police from the apartment. A broken piece of wood, which later proved to fit pieces found at the hotel and matched the model of shotgun seized, carried Wellman’s DNA. A navy toque with apparent eye holes cut into it, found on the street behind the hotel by police officers the morning after the shooting, contained Phillips’ DNA on the inside and a single particle of gunshot residue on the outside.
“Shakespearean justice,” Heerema said of the mask, alleging Phillips wore it to hide his identity, but it later gave him away through DNA testing.
In his closing remarks, Gruchy told the jurors that just because Phillips’ DNA was on the mask doesn’t mean he was inside the hotel. His DNA wasn’t determined among the four DNA profiles found on the gun, the lawyer pointed out, and there was no evidence to suggest how the sneakers, wood or gun got into the residence.
“You don’t know,” he said. “And you’re in a situation where you have no other evidence. No admission, no other statements. It’s a major concern because the Crown can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt. You have to be sure that the person in the bar was Brandon Phillips. You have to be sure about that.
“Could Mr. Phillips have played some role, but not gone into the Captain’s Quarters with a gun? Possibly. I’m not saying that’s the case.”
Gruchy described the oneframe-per-second surveillance video as a “slow-moving flipbook,” and reminded the jurors of the testimony of firearms expert Laura Knowles, who had examined the shotgun taken from the apartment and had found it to consistently fire when hit on the top with a rubber mallet, without a trigger pull.
Wellman had used a small table to hit the gun, seemingly in an attempt to disarm the robber in the seconds before he was shot, Gruchy reminded the jury, and pointed out Wellman was shot in the groin.
“Not in a spot where you’d shoot if you intended to kill someone,” he said.
Above all, Gruchy focused on the testimony of Shawn Deeley, a former military man working for a security company who was also in the hotel bar that night.
“He said the gunman’s voice cracked, that he heard a quiver in it, and the person didn’t sound very confident,” Gruchy reminded the jury. “He had a sense the person with the gun had some issues. He used the words ‘scared, confused, upset.’ He was there. He’s not hearing this through distorted speakers.”
Gruchy suggested manslaughter as a consideration for the jury instead of murder.
“None of (the evidence) points to first-degree murder. With respect, it’s not second-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt. If it was a robbery that went tragically wrong, that would be manslaughter. If, and only if, you were satisfied with the identity of the person.
“It looked like the perfect accident to me. A perfect storm accident.”
Members of both Phillips’ and Wellman’s families were in the courtroom for the closing arguments, as were some of the witnesses who testified during the trial. Justice Valerie Marshall will give her instructions to the jury Tuesday morning, after which they will be sequestered to deliberate.