Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 10/05) - Crack-cocaine dealer Justin Hai Van Vo was strangled to death over an $800 drug debt, testified a former friend, Thursday.

Star prosecution witness Richard Tutin told a Supreme Court jury that fellow drug user Gerald Delorme killed Vo after he failed to produce the money during a heated exchange in a downtown crack house on the morning of June 16, 2003.

Gerald Delorme

"(Delorme) said 'Fa- you. I'm going to kill you, you little bastard,'" Tutin testified. He pleaded guilty to accessory to murder last year in connection with Vo's death and is expected to be released from jail in July.

Delorme, who is charged with first degree murder and accessory to murder, punched Vo in the ribs and smacked him over the head with a crowbar, Tutin said. He compared the sound of the crowbar blow to a nut cracking.

Tutin testified that he repeatedly pleaded with Delorme and another man, Francis Yukon, to stop beating Vo. Tutin called Vo a close friend, referring to him as "Woody" on the stand.

Yukon pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the death earlier this year.

According to Tutin, Delorme and Vo struggled to the ground, where Delorme grabbed a knife and stabbed Vo in the chest. Tutin went on to testify that Yukon wrapped an electrical extension cord around Vo's legs.

Delorme then took the extension cord and coiled it around Vo's neck, Tutin told the court. "All of a sudden (Vo) quit shaking," Tutin said, his voice slowing. "Right there, I knew he had killed him."

Tutin said he bought cleaning fluids from a downtown hardware store which were used to scrub the living room.

He also testified Delorme stuffed Vo's body into a sleeping bag before Delorme and Yukon loaded the body into the back of a borrowed pickup truck. All three men drove out to the Yellowknife River bridge.

They dumped the body near a city pumphouse, covered it in oil, brake fluid and gas, then lit it on fire. Tutin said clouds of white and black smoke billowed into the air. The remains were discovered later that morning by a city worker.

Yesterday marked the fourth day of testimony in the trial, which is expected to last nearly a month.

Tutin testified that he sold cocaine with Vo beginning in January 2003 out of an apartment building on 50th Street. "We had quite an operation going there," Tutin said. While business was good, Tutin said Vo began to make enemies in the drug trade by not repaying loans and shorting other dealers. The two were evicted from their apartment in March 2003. Tutin moved into a dilapidated crack house with Yukon and Delorme. All of the men were smoking the drug the morning Vo was killed, Tutin said.

Tutin is scheduled to continue his testimony today.