Defence asks jury to disregard video evidence in trial of man accused of killing Pat Stay
The defence presented its closing arguments Monday morning in the second-degree murder trial of Adam Drake.
Drake, 34, is accused of fatally stabbing Pat Stay in a Halifax bar in the early hours of Sept. 4, 2022.
The Crown's key piece of evidence is video surveillance from inside the Yacht Club Social the night the Dartmouth battle rapper was stabbed. It shows Stay with his back to the camera getting into an altercation with someone. He turns around, brushes what appears to be blood from his chest and is then punched. He stumbles to the floor, gets back up and walks out of the camera's view.
Defence lawyer Michael Lacy spent most of Monday morning urging the Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury to disregard the video evidence.
Lacy, who didn't submit any evidence during the trial, also urged the jurors to disregard a Facebook post Drake made a couple of weeks prior to Stay's death in which he wrote "can't wait to give you a big hug." Lacy said the post says nothing about what happened inside the club the night Stay was stabbed.
Lacy showed video of Drake outside a nearby hotel in the hours after Stay's death, pointing out Drake was wearing the same clothes he wore while he was at the Yacht Club Social. That, the defence lawyer said, was not the behaviour of a guilty man.
The trial at a Dartmouth courthouse has been emotionally charged. On Monday morning, sheriffs had to reprimand members of the visitors' gallery for making loud comments during the defence's closing arguments.
After Lacy had finished his arguments late in the morning and was attempting to leave the parking lot, his path was blocked by a man on a motorcycle. Several sheriffs urged the motorcyclist to get out of the way — one even suggesting he'd be arrested if he didn't move his bike.
The man eventually complied and then followed Lacy's SUV as he pulled out of the parking lot of the Mellor Avenue courthouse.
The Crown presented its closing arguments on Friday. It's expected Justice Scott Norton will deliver instructions to the jury on Tuesday.
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