Single punch to blame for man’s death, Crown says
A woman encouraged her boyfriend to assault a man inside a Starbucks and a single blow to the head resulted in the victim’s death, a prosecutor said Monday.
Before the killing of Michael Page-Vincelli, Oldouz Pournouruz got into an argument with him outside a Royal Bank at the Kensington shopping mall on Hastings Street in Burnaby, said Crown counsel Colleen Smith.
Witnesses will say the two were seen yelling at one another as Page-Vincelli straddled his bicycle and Pournouruz sat in her vehicle while her boyfriend, Lawrence Alvin Sharpe, was inside the bank, she said.
“I expect some of them will say that the male made a racist slur, including calling the woman a dirty immigrant,” Smith told a B.C. Supreme Court jury during her opening statement.
“I expect you will hear testimony about cigarettes being thrown, including testimony of the male flicking a cigarette at the woman.”
At the outset of their trial Monday, Sharpe and Pournouruz each pleaded not guilty to one count of manslaughter for the slaying of Page-Vincelli, 22, on July 12, 2017.
Smith said that several witnesses will say that Pournouruz warned Page-Vincelli that she would get her boyfriend to beat him up and she was then seen entering the bank.
After a short conversation, Pournouruz and Sharpe left the bank and headed toward the nearby Starbucks, where Page-Vincelli had gone, said the Crown.
Sharpe delivered a single punch to the head of Page-Vincelli, who fell backwards and hit his head, perhaps first striking a counter, she said.
Page-Vincelli was taken to Royal Columbian Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a fractured skull and a significant brain injury. He never regained consciousness and was pronounced braindead the following day. The cause of death was determined to be blunt head trauma.
“The Crown alleges that single punch was an assault committed by the accused, Lawrence Sharpe, and that it was delivered upon the encouragement of the accused, Oldouz Pournouruz,” said Smith.
Toxicology tests revealed that there was an amount of fentanyl in Page-Vincelli’s blood that was in the “therapeutic range,” she said.
Smith told the jury that the Crown’s evidence includes video footage from inside the bank and the Starbucks, including the fatal assault.
A teen testified Monday that she and several of her then-high school classmates were selling doughnuts outside the bank for a charity when they witnessed a loud argument between a man and a woman.
The teen said she heard racial slurs and “a lot of swearing” between the two people involved in the dispute.
Asked by Smith as to what racial slurs she heard, the teen replied: “I can’t exactly recall any of the racial slurs but the words ‘dirty immigrant’ stick in my mind.”
The teen said the argument began with the man throwing a cigarette butt at the woman, which resulted in the woman throwing the cigarette butt back at the man.
She described the demeanour of the two as being “hostile” toward each other.
The teen said that the woman said outside the bank that she would get her boyfriend from inside the bank and that he would hurt the man involved in the argument.
The woman entered the bank, then left with a man and went toward the Starbucks, said the teen.
Asked about the demeanour of the man and woman heading toward the Starbucks, the teen said they appeared to be “rushed.”
She said she didn’t see the man and woman enter the Starbucks, but saw them leaving the coffee shop and again they appeared to be rushed.
The trial is expected to continue today and run for about four weeks.