SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
After three weeks of trial and testimony, it took a Yellowknife jury six hours to deliver a guilty verdict in the murder of Charlotte Lafferty, who was beaten and sexually assaulted outside an elders' home in Fort Good Hope on March 22, 2014.
The first-degree murder verdict was delivered to NWT Supreme Court judge Louise Charbonneau at around 6:30 p.m., on Feb. 11. The 23-year-old mother of three's 19-year-old killer cannot be named because he was a minor at the time of the offence.
The jury heard testimony from more than 30 witnesses and considered 60 exhibits presented as evidence during the trial. RCMP Const. Mike Pudsey, who testified during the first week of trial, was the first officer on the scene after he received a report of an ongoing assault at about 7:17 a.m. It took him several minutes to arrive after some confusion about exactly where the assault was taking place.
He told court he saw Lafferty's killer leaving the scene of the crime at a walking pace with an apparently blood-stained wooden board over his shoulder.
The accused stopped and looked at him with wide eyes before he dropped the board and took off at a run. Pudsey said he knew the accused well because he met him on his first day as a police officer when he joined the Fort Good Hope detachment in August 2012. He had other dealings with the young man since then and was certain the offender was the man he saw running away from him on March 22. Pudsey said he gave chase but stumbled and the killer escaped.
On Feb. 10, Crown prosecutor Annie Piche delivered her closing statement to the jury of five women and seven men. She said the weight of evidence proves the young man carried out the horrific attack.
"I'm submitting to you when considering all the evidence, there's only one reasonable conclusion," Piche told the jury.
While reading her directions to the jury and summarizing some of the evidence provided by the defence, Charbonneau reminded the jury that the accused admits he is the one who ran from Pudsey.
She pointed out that defence lawyer Charles Davison - in his final submission on the morning of Feb. 10 - told the court the accused was in violation of a court order to abstain from drinking at the time, and fled because he had been drinking and did not want to get caught.
Piche told jurors the evidence suggests the accused wasn't excessively intoxicated at the time. She said the fact that he was able to outrun Pudsey - who considers himself to be physically fit - is "incompatible" with a state of intoxication.
The nature of the attack shows the offender intended to kill Lafferty, the jury was told.
"She was beaten beyond recognition," said Piche. "Her facial features were flattened, she was hit multiple times on the body and head."
A blood-spatter expert who analyzed the scene testified there were separate stages to the attack and six different impact patterns were identified. The three-foot-long wooden 2x2 board used to kill Lafferty sat on a table in the jurors room for their consideration.
"It's not hard to imagine she could have died from a single blow," said Piche.
The killer had urinated on Lafferty's body and sexually assaulted her in addition to brutally beating her with the board, which all suggests the accused "knew exactly what he was doing."
"He did foresee the consequence of death," said Piche.
Witness Barthy Kotchile testified he saw the attack taking place from his window at the elders' home but was not able to identify the people involved.
He described how the victim lay on the ground non-responsive as her attacker continued to strike her.
Piche told News/North no particular piece of evidence or testimony stood out as most compelling but rather, the chain of evidence pieced together had painted a clear picture for the jurors.
"It's a combination of all the little pieces of evidence that actually make a circumstantial case compelling," said Piche.
She said the Crown is pleased with the verdict and will apply for the accused to be sentenced as an adult.
"That's what we were hoping for, that's what we asked the jury to return, a verdict of guilty on first degree murder," she said.
The Crown and defence will now apply for a psychiatric assessment of the offender before sentencing is delivered.
Piche said an assessment typically take about 30 days to complete.
"So that is the first step," she said.
