Lawyers offer jurors contrasting narratives in Afrah Abdi murder trial
CBC
The Crown and defence in the Afrah Abdi murder trial both urged jurors in their closing arguments to use common sense when weighing evidence from the eight-day trial.
The jurors must decide whether a man identified on bar surveillance video as 'Tax,' a nickname, is in fact Afrah Abdi. The 33-year-old is charged with second-degree murder in the Aug. 21, 2020, shooting death of Logan Nayneecassum at Aria Food and Spirits.
"This is a simple case, proven by the first witness — the video surveillance," prosecutor Michael Pilon said Wednesday at Court of King's Bench.
"A careful assessment of the evidence will show that Afrah Abdi is not Tax, and Tax is not Afrah Abdi," said defence lawyer Leo Adler.
Justice Mona Dovell will give her charge to the jury Thursday, after which they will begin deliberating.
Pilon said Abdi's "futile attempts to change his appearance" should not fool jurors. Abdi is slimmer than the man on the video, and has longer hair and a beard.
Pilon said three Crown witnesses from the bar identified the man on the video as Tax, who is seen on video shooting Nayneecassum. One of the witnesses, bartender Travis Philley, identified Abdi in court as Tax.
"Travis knows this accused. This isn't a case of strangers meeting in the blink of an eye. They knew each other for eight months," he said.
Adler said the problems with the Crown's case began with the police investigation. He said police did not track taxis that came to the Rosewood bar — which could have yielded an address for Tax — or analyze video from cameras at a nearby Dairy Queen.
Investigators also did not collect cigarette butts or drinking glasses from a patio, which could potentially have given DNA.
"There is no scientific or forensic evidence identifying Tax — no fingerprints, no DNA, no cellphone records — that independently and conclusively link Afrah Abdi to this tragedy," he said.
This, Adler said, left Travis Philley as the anchor for the Crown's case. He suggested that Philley could easily have confused Abdi with Tax.
"Having [someone] as a customer doesn't mean you're right. This was a busy bar, and they weren't spending hours over a romantic dinner," he said.
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