'I tried to help him,' girlfriend testifies at Brandon manslaughter trial for alleged drug dealer
The girlfriend of a 30-year-old Brandon man who died in 2020 told a court Tuesday about the last moments of his life, as a manslaughter trial began for the woman accused of selling the drugs he took before his death.
Witness Chrissy Nepinak, 33, told the court hours after she and her boyfriend, Michael Crede, split a gram of MDMA, or ecstasy, on July 25, 2020, he began to shake and foam at the mouth before he ultimately became unresponsive.
"I tried to help him.… I grabbed a sweater from my trunk and then I went back in [the car], and I wiped his mouth," Nepinak told Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup during questioning at Court of King's Bench in Brandon, Man.
"Right after that, he just … stopped shaking and everything, and was just still."
She told the court at the judge-only trial before Justice Elliot Leven that the drugs were purchased from Hailey Lepine, 35.
Lepine, who has pleaded not guilty, is charged with manslaughter, criminal negligence and unlawfully trafficking a controlled substance, with prosecutors alleging she provided the MDMA knowing it to be a dangerous substance, causing Crede's death.
Charges were laid after a year-long investigation, and Lepine's trial has been delayed twice.
'He was already gone'
Court heard Nepinak had known Crede for about a decade. At the time of his death they had been dating for about a year, and it was the second time they had been in a relationship.
Nepinak said they planned to hang out on July 25, 2020, and were looking to use recreational drugs. She testified she messaged Lepine on a social media app and they agreed to meet at a Brandon hotel.
She told court once she secured the MDMA, she went to Crede's home at the Brentwood Trailer Park. They split a gram of the MDMA, as they had done in the past, she said.
After a couple of hours, she decided to get cigarettes and helped Crede walk through his home to her car, because he was unsteady on his feet, she testified.
As soon as they left the trailer park, Crede began having seizures and foaming at the mouth, so she pulled over into the parking lot of a local bowling alley, she said.
"I tried to check for a pulse or something," after stopping, she said.
"I put my head on his chest to see if I could hear anything. But I didn't."
Defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn asked why Nepinak didn't call 911 or go to the hospital when Crede was clearly having a medical emergency. Nepinak said she never thought of it, and didn't do anything because she believed he was already dead.
"I didn't want to believe it, but I knew he was already gone," Nepinak said.
Cross-examination casts doubt on drug source
During cross-examination, Synyshyn argued it seemed unlikely the drugs had come from Lepine, suggesting instead she got them from her brother.
When Synyshyn asked if he had provided the drugs that killed Crede, denied he had.
The defence lawyer also said no one could place Nepinak with Lepine on the day Crede died, and that the messages Nepinak alleged Lepine sent about selling her drugs were also deleted from Nepinak's phone that morning.
Synyshyn also pointed out that Nepinak didn't immediately provide Lepine's name to the police. She testified she didn't initially want to give police a name, but changed her mind when they told her she could help prevent more deaths by telling them where the drugs came from.
He argued Nepinak supplied Lepine's name to police because she knew either she or the person who sold her the drugs would be in trouble.
"You didn't want to tell police where you got those drugs," Synyshyn said. "You picked a name out of thin air because you didn't want to give them the name of your brother."
Nepinak denied that.
The trial continues Wednesday with testimony from a pathologist, a toxicologist and a police officer.
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