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Cabbie says he's lucky to be alive after attack
Says he was choked unconscious by Denecho King, accused of murdering man three months earlier

John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 15, 2017

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife taxi driver says he feels lucky to be alive after surviving a vicious beating at the hands of accused murderer Denecho King.

The 48-year-old cabbie, whom Yellowknifer has chosen not to identify, was testifying last week at the robbery trial of Karma Eeyeevadluk, 20, in NWT Supreme Court.

She was found guilty by a jury of six men and six women on Thursday. Eeyeevadluk was taken into custody after the verdict and will appear in court via video on Feb. 27 to set a date for her sentencing.

Eeyeevadluk was with King, 24, and his brother Bradley King, 22, on Feb. 25, 2015 when the cab driver was beaten and robbed in Old Town.

Denecho King is facing murder and attempted murder charges after two men were attacked and left for dead in a Yellowknife apartment on Dec. 5, 2014. John Wifladt was pronounced dead in hospital after being found badly injured in the apartment belonging to his friend Colin Digness who was also injured in the attack.

Police announced murder and attempted charges against King on May 1, 2015 while he was in custody awaiting a court date for assaulting the cab driver.

The cab driver testified he had picked up Eeyeevadluk and the two brothers in Ndilo on the night of the robbery and that they only had $10 between them. He said they were heading downtown but then asked him to return to Ndilo.

The cabbie said he pulled over on Otto Drive and told them their $10 had been used up.

That is when Denecho King put him in a choke hold while seated in the back seat, he testified. Bradley King, in the front seat, punched him five or six times in the face.

The driver said while he was trying to defend himself, Eeyeevadluk got out of the taxi from the back seat, opened the driver's side door and took $50 out of his front pocket.

She also grabbed his left hand and tried to prevent him from pushing his emergency button, which is used to notify taxi dispatch when a driver is in trouble.

The cabbie testified all three offenders subsequently fled on foot.

Eeyeevadluk, a small woman with long dark hair, showed little emotion during the cab driver's testimony.

The victim said the attack affected him both physically and emotionally.

"I could not breathe when I was being choked," he said.

"I was unconscious. I was also bleeding from the nose and mouth."

He added the punches damaged several teeth. He required extensive dental work, which made it difficult for him to chew and eat food. He was taken to Stanton Territorial Hospital by ambulance following the attack.

The cabbie testified he did not drive his taxi for two months after the attack.

"I still cannot drive my taxi at night," the man said, adding the attack left him anxious and afraid.

The victim, who came to Canada 16 years ago from Sudan, had some difficulty understanding the questions put to him by Crown prosecutor Jill Andrews and Eeyeevadluk's defence lawyer Tu Pham.

He testified that Arabic is his first language but insisted he did not need a translator for the trial.

Under cross examination, the driver insisted he remembered Eeyeevadluk taking the money from his pocket despite being dazed from the attack.

He denied Pham's suggestion that Eeyeevadluk was actually trying to help him and had only reached into the front seat to retrieve her purse.

Andrews told the jury in her closing statement that the evidence during trial revealed the three offenders had taken another taxi after fleeing from the first cab. She said the second fare was paid by Eeyeevadluk and that the cash was the same money she had stolen from the cab driver.

Both King brothers pleaded guilty last year to assault causing bodily harm for their roles in the attack.

Denecho King received 12 months in jail while Bradley King, 22, was sentenced to four months. Robbery charges against both of them were dropped.

Denecho King made headlines last summer when he scaled the roof and escaped from the North Slave Correctional Centre, spurring a three-day manhunt until his recapture Aug. 13 at his mother's home on Sissons Court.

Denecho King remains in jail awaiting trial on the murder and attempted murder charges. No date for the trial has been set.

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