Lucy Li describes stressful ‘fight or flight’ response during cross-examination at trial
Oliver Karafa and Li are charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder; they have pleaded not guilty
Lucy Li said she knows that logically, looking at the evidence now, there are things she did following a fatal shooting that look weird, irrational or illogical, but insists that at the time she was in a “stressful fight or flight response.”
During her fifth day testifying in her own defence, Li pointed to examples of “red flags” she missed, adding that she knows, morally, she did things that are not right.
Writing fraudulent insurance documents was wrong. Driving an Audi Q5 without licence plates was wrong, she said. “I’m not OK with hanging out with drug dealers or gangsters … and most importantly I’d never be OK with a plan to commit murder.”
Assistant Crown attorney Mark Dean suggested that Li and her husband, Oliver Karafa, carefully orchestrated a financial fraud against Tyler Pratt and Jordyn Romano — and carefully planned a murder plot that Li was a part of the entire time.
Li agreed there was a murder plot by Karafa, but says she only found out about it later.
Karafa and Li are jointly charged with the first-degree murder of Pratt and the attempted murder of Romano, who were shot behind an industrial property at 347 Arvin Ave. on Feb. 28, 2021. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Dean said the plan that day involved first leaving their condo undetected, including Li taking the elevator disguised in a blond wig, her face turned away from the surveillance camera. The wig was later found with other evidence disposed of in a garbage bag.
When confronted with the piece of evidence after her arrest, Li told police in a recorded interview that she wore the wig leaving her apartment on the way to the shooting scene. But when asked why she pauses.
“Again, it fits into what I was told was going on, but Oliver told me to do it,” Li said in her recorded interview with Det. Troy Ashbaugh played earlier in the trial.
In court Thursday, Dean accused her of lying about the wig because it was a disguise.
But Li disagreed, explaining that she froze during her police interview because to explain the wig would mean explaining details of her sex life. The real story of the wig, she said, is that it was a gift from an Instagram sponsor that Li would wear sometimes as a “fetish wig” with Karafa. On the day of the shooting, she said she reluctantly agreed last-minute to drive her husband to a business meeting with Pratt and Romano at the Stoney Creek property she believed they were looking at for a marijuana growing business.
Li said she was rushed out the door and Karafa said they should take the stairs. Unlike the building ’s elevators there are no surveillance cameras in the stairs. Partway down from their 34th floor, twostorey condo, Li said she spotted the wig in a bag Karafa was carrying and believed that he was taking it to meet another woman and cheat on her. During the ensuing argument Li said she put on the wig to mess with Karafa, grabbed his phone and ran to the elevator, expecting Karafa to give chase. He did not and there is video of her stepping onto the elevator, her face down and not visible to the camera.
“Your disguise was so good it actually worked,” Dean said, adding that police never found her on the video even after she admitted in her recorded interview to wearing it leaving the building.
It was later found by Li’s own defence team and Li said she insisted it be shared. She said if she truly wanted to remain undetected, she would have remained in the camera-free stairs like Karafa.
Following the shooting, when the couple fled to Europe, Li said Karafa later confessed to her that he planned to wear the blond wig to make it look like he was Romano driving away in her Ranger Rover after he killed them, she said.
She said she didn’t want to talk about the wig — and her and Karafa’s sex life — in the police interview for fear the video would later become viral online. She didn’t want her strict Chinese family seeing it.
Dean suggested the wig — along with SIM card swaps — was all part of the murder plot.
Karafa’s friend Phi Chinh previously testified that he switched SIM cards with either Karafa or Li’s phone, allowing his SIM card to be taken to what he was told was a secretive business meeting that day. Phone records show Phi’s SIM card — which controls messages and calls from his cell number — travelling to Arvin Avenue.
Li said she was instructed to leave her phone at home, because her family often tracked each other’s locations and she was told Karafa didn’t want the marijuana growoperation business leaking back to a friend who was dating one of Li’s sisters. But she said she didn’t know about SIM cards being swapped.
Li said Karafa wanted her to just drop him off at Arvin, but she refused out of fear he was going to cheat on her, she said. When Pratt and Romano arrived, the two men went off to talk, but Li said she was concerned when Romano questioned where Li’s relator was and mentioned dinner plans in Oakville afterwards — both were news to her.
Li said she walked over to ask Karafa but found the two men arguing. Karafa asked her to check around the back of the property for a lock box and, while at the back, she heard popping noises around a corner. Not realizing they were gunshots, Li said she walked back around and saw Romano crash her Range Rover and Karafa yelled for her to get into the Audi Q5 they had driven to the scene.
Initially, she believed Romano had run over Pratt, but now knows that’s not true.
Li denied any knowledge of a plot and said Karafa only told her months later that he planned to kill Pratt and Romano before Pratt found out that a business venture wasn’t doing well — and Karafa wouldn’t be able to pay money Pratt was expecting. Court has heard Pratt was a cocaine trafficker with alleged ties to organized crime. Li said Karafa told her he feared Pratt would kill him or someone he loved.
Li said she was not aware of Karafa’s apparent plan to sell Romano and Pratt’s Range Rover following the shooting. She said flipping cars was one of Karafa’s businesses and she knew he was selling the Audi she and Karafa drove that day.
Text records show that just 11 minutes after the last time the Range Rover — which Li said Karafa was driving with her in the passenger seat — drove by Arvin Avenue, Karafa and the car seller, Mohamad Morad, were messaging each other.
Karafa’s account says both cars are now “f-ked” and will have to be towed, he’ll give them to Morad for $2,000.
Morad messages back asking for some more information, including a picture of the ownership.
The photo sent back shows Li holding Romano’s Range Rover ownership in her front lap, Li admitted Thursday. She agreed with the Crown that it was sent as she and Karafa were travelling back toward Toronto from the shooting scene, but said she was shaking and didn’t know what was going on. She said Karafa asked her to grab it and hold it for a photo but she thought it was to arrange a tow, since the Range Rover had been damaged in the incident.
Li said she was “so panicked and everything felt like a dream.”
Li said that, as they fled the country, her main concern was fear for her and her family’s safety. But Dean suggested her main fear was actually fleeing from police.
Li denied this, saying that she didn’t initially think she would face charges, but “looking back I realize that was stupid.”