Verdict in cabbie’s sexual assault trial set for January
They may have been unsure about some details, but the two women who testified they were sexually assaulted were clear who did it, the Crown prosecutor told the judge Tuesday.
“The witnesses were credible,” Dana Sullivan said in closing arguments of Lulzim (Leon) Jakupaj’s trial at Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in St. John’s. “It’s been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that both were sexually assaulted by Lulzim Jakupaj.”
But defence lawyer Amanda Summers disagreed, noting the women and witnesses may have been too intoxicated to be completely certain what happened or who did it.
“(They were) not credible. He should be acquitted,” Summers said.
Lulzim, 34, is accused of sexually assaulting the women in separate incidents, 10 days apart in March 2016, when he worked as a driver for City Wide Taxi. In both incidents, the women were heading home after a night of drinking downtown.
In the first incident, the woman, who was 19 at the time, said she and her four friends got a ride in Jakupaj’s cab to Mount Pearl and he invited himself in
when they arrived. When she went downstairs to the basement apartment, she said, Jakupaj pinned her against a wall, pressed his forearm across her throat, forced his tongue into her mouth and tried to pull down her pants. A woman in the apartment at the time said she witnessed the assault.
In an interview with police
about the incident months later, Jakupaj denied sexually assaulting the woman, saying he depended on his job with City Wide Taxi and wouldn’t jeopardize it. He told police he “didn’t need to” assault anyone, since he had women asking him for a date every day.
Summers said all five passengers in the cab that night, including the complainant, were drunk and there was arguing over an incident that happened earlier in the night.
“It was chaos on the way home,” Summers said.
She said none of the complainants’ friends were paying attention to Jakupaj, which is likely why they all gave various descriptions of him. While three of them said he had an accent, one described it as Mexican, another as Russian and a third as Arab or Middle Eastern. Jakupaj is from Kosovo. The complainant said Jakupaj told her his name was Leon.
“If the plan was to sexually assault someone, you wouldn’t give your real name,” Summers said.
As for the woman who said she saw the assault when she came out of the bathroom in the basement apartment, Summers suggested she and the complainant had ample time to chat amongst themselves before the case came to court.
“Friends are going to talk,” she said. “Her recollection was influenced by discussions with (the complainant).”
A second woman, 24, told the court Jakupaj had picked her up downtown and upon pulling into her driveway in Paradise, grabbed the back of her neck and forced his tongue into her mouth. She said she managed to push him away and got out of the car, and Jakupaj drove away.
“An unwanted kiss is a sexual assault,” Sullivan said. “It was without consent and forced.”
But Summers argued that while Jakupaj admits driving her that night, there’s no evidence he sexually assaulted her.
She said the fact that the woman, during a stop at an Irving gas station, gave Jakupaj her bank card and PIN number, and asked him to get $100 from the ATM for her, was evidence of just how drunk she was.
She also pointed out that the woman thought Jakupaj had worn a jacket that was leather or fake leather, since that’s what she felt while pushing him away. However, video from the gas station revealed Jakupaj was wearing a sweater.
The Crown said it may have been the seatbelt, which has a similar feel.
Justice Rosalie Mcgrath will render a verdict on the two charges of sexual assault Jan. 29.
Jakupaj is currently serving a four-year sentence for a breakin during the same time period, in which he followed a female passenger into a house after dropping her off.