Witness heard victim being dragged to death
Sounds of Jayesh Prajapati under wheels of SUV was ‘sickening,’ trial hears
The sounds of gas station attendant Jayesh Prajapati being dragged along Roselawn Ave. in the wheels of an SUV could be heard from the 18th floor of a nearby apartment building, a court heard on Thursday.
It was a noise like a pylon caught under a car, witness Trevor Bell testified on the third day of Max Tutiven’s trial on charges of second-degree murder. Hours after Prajapati’s death, Bell told police the sound was “sickening,” he testified.
The Crown alleges that Tutiven fled a North York Shell station without paying for $112.85 worth of gas, hitting Prajapati with his silver SUV when the attendant tried to stop him. Prajapati was dragged 78 metres before his body was dislodged, the Crown said. Tutiven has pleaded not guilty. Bell was sitting in his apartment across the street from the gas station, with his balcony doors open when, at about 9 p.m. on Sept. 15, 2012, he heard shouting, screeching tires, two instances of dragging sounds and a voice yelling “Call 911,” he testified.
He went out on his balcony to see a vehicle speeding away, he said. Bell called 911 and reported a “hit and run” by a white jeep. He told the court that, to his mind, a jeep and SUV are essentially the same thing.
Joanne Dajao, another Crown witness, testified she was sitting in her friend’s car at the gas station, applying makeup, when she saw Prajapati run out of the station’s kiosk yelling, “Hey, hey.”
Prajapati disappeared from her view, but she saw a silver SUV driving “really fast” out of the station and realized the attendant was being dragged, Dajao told the court. She estimated the SUV reached 80 km/h.
A witness testified Wednesday that the SUV accelerated before hitting Prajapati and showed no signs of braking.
Prajapati, a 44-year-old husband and father, was dragged and then run over by one of the SUV’s front wheels, then caught and dragged by one of the SUV’s rear wheels as the vehicle pulled out of the gas station, Fernando Aspiazu said.
The Crown presented video Monday showing a stocky man with dark hair and a beard pull up to the Shell station near Eglinton Ave. W. and Allen Rd., pump gas into his silver SUV and two jerry cans, and drive away without paying.
The Crown alleges Tutiven is the man in that video, and claims that he committed six gas thefts in the year leading up to Prajapati’s death.