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Confessed killer John Christopher Arrizza was not so intoxicated he couldn’t type the intent to commit homicide when he fatally stabbed a person in a Banff nightclub washroom, a jury dominated Friday.
A 12-member Calgary Court docket of King’s Bench jury deliberated about 10 hours over two days earlier than convicting Arrizza of second-degree homicide within the Aug. 5, 2022, killing of Ethan Enns-Goneau.
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Arrizza confirmed no outward emotion because the jury foreperson learn the decision of responsible.
A slight sigh of aid might be heard within the courtroom from a big contingent of supporters of the deceased.
Jurors rejected options by defence lawyer Katherin Beyak that Arrizza was so intoxicated he couldn’t type the intention to both kill Enns-Goneau, or trigger him grievous bodily hurt whereas being reckless as as to if he’d trigger a demise.
Beyak had argued her shopper was too intoxicated to type both of these intentions required for the Crown to show an accused responsible of homicide.
She had sought a conviction on the decreased cost of manslaughter.
However jurors agreed with Crown prosecutor Patrick Bigg that Arrizza, who was intoxicated on medication, alcohol, or each, was nonetheless able to understanding his assault on the deceased can be lethal.
Arrizza, 24, a current transplant from Ontario, stabbed Enns-Goneau repeatedly within the basement males’s room of the Dancing Sasquatch bar within the nationwide park city.
Enns-Goneau and his pal Bobby Lavery had been out for an evening in town after they stopped into the Dancing Sasquatch for a nightcap.
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After they entered, Enns-Goneau headed to the toilet whereas Lavery went upstairs to the bar space.
Surveillance video from the membership confirmed the sufferer coming into the washroom whereas undoing his pants in preparation of utilizing the services.
Simply over a minute later the footage confirmed Arrizza pushing Enns-Goneau out of the lads’s room and into the corridor and stabbing him thrice. The sufferer was stabbed contained in the washroom and off-camera one other eight instances.
When a bouncer arrived to take Arrizza away Enns-Goneau stood briefly within the hallway earlier than collapsing to the ground.
Shortly after his arrest, Arrizza was place behind an RCMP cruiser the place an in-car digicam captured feedback he made to Cpl. Sheldon Silveira.
At one level, Arrizza requested himself: “Why didn’t I simply begin punching him? ‘Trigger I used to be scared. ‘Trigger I used to be scared. Will you set that in my assertion? I used to be scared.”
Bigg famous an important piece of proof within the case got here from Enns-Goneau’s post-mortem exhibiting the sufferer had solely 20 mL of urine in his bladder, which means he would have used the services within the 78 seconds he was within the washroom.
Arrizza, who stays in custody, will likely be sentenced at a later date.
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