Accused murderer said he was ‘bon garçon’
Devontay Hackett texted prom date morning after fatal stabbing
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for Sarah Tahan the morning of June 7, 2014 when she texted her prom date, Devontay Hackett, asking for photos of their night together in downtown Ottawa.
She had heard about a fight outside Les Suites Hotel the night before when students from a number of high schools stayed for afterprom celebrations.
But in her jovial text message exchange with the St. Pius High School grad he assured her everything was all right.
Without knowing yet that an 18-year-old student from St. Patrick High School, Brandon Volpi, had been fatally stabbed outside the downtown hotel and that police were searching for a suspect, Tahan wrote, “Hope you’re alive!! Send me the pictures when you can :).”
Hackett replied, “I’m aliveeee!! I will when I get (Wi-Fi)! Thx for coming again ehh :).”
Later that morning, she texted Hackett again: “I heard s--t went down last night I hope you stayed out of trouble.”
At around noon that day he replied, “Ahah : ) always out of trouble bon garçon O:).” (The witness said the final symbol in his text is an angel emoticon.)
Three days later, Ottawa police, after reviewing surveillance footage from the hotel, issued a Canada-wide arrest warrant for Hackett for second-degree murder in the Volpi slaying.
A snapshot of the text message exchange between Tahan and Hackett, who is now 21, was shown to the jury at his murder trial on Friday.
Jurors heard at the opening of the trial that Volpi’s throat had been slashed, but it was a stab wound to the heart that killed him.
Tahan testified that she and other students were drinking alcohol in the hotel room during after-prom celebrations, but she never saw the accused with a knife on the day of the prom and didn’t hear any talk about one.
There was no tension between him and other students, she added.
“It was just prom kids having a good time,” Joe Addelman, the lawyer for the accused, put to the witness.
“Absolutely,” the young woman replied.
She accompanied Hackett at a garden party, the prom and Camp Fortune, and then stayed at the hotel for a couple of drinks.
But later, in the early-morning hours, everything turned ugly.
In a blurry cellphone video taken by hotel guests from the balcony, Hackett is seen in a short brawl with Volpi at the hotel entrance.
He is seen lunging at Volpi with an object in his hand before he sprints to an alley, while Volpi, clutching his throat, collapses at the foot of a statue in front of Les Suites.
But as the jury heard Friday, no knife was found in the surrounding area, despite a forensic search that stretched as far away as Orléans.
Forensic identification officer Sgt. Jim Killeen of the Ottawa police testified that officers canvassing the scene on the morning of June 7 seized a pair of discarded jeans from a garbage bin, a crushed beer can and even some chewing gum, but not the weapon used in Volpi’s slaying.
The jury heard that a trail of blood stains in an alleyway between the Les Suites and Novotel hotels was found to contain Hackett’s DNA.
More drip stains from the Arts Court building across the street from Les Suites continued to a bus shelter on Waller Street and through the University of Ottawa campus farther south.
Surveillance footage obtained by the Ottawa Police Service from the university shows two men walking together along the same route from the Waller and Laurier intersection until they walk off-camera at the university’s campus station along the transitway.
Back at the Arts Court parking lot, police found a bloodied white T-shirt that contained DNA from both Hackett and Volpi, the jury was told.
Hackett was also seen on surveillance video getting into and later out of the back seat of a Nissan Murano, where traces of his blood and Volpi’s blood were found.
Killeen agreed with Addelman that police officers conducted a “thorough” search of multiple areas but failed to turn up the weapon.
Hackett was arrested in Toronto one month after the killing. He has pleaded not guilty to seconddegree murder.
The trial is set to resume Monday.
It was just prom kids having a good time.