Homicide & Manslaughter, In the News
A grainy Edmonton Transit video that captured a fatal stabbing on Canada Day two years ago could have been a key factor in acquitting Augustine Poitras of the crime, his defence lawyer said on Friday.
Article Source: Edmonton Journal
Posted: Feb 26, 2011
A grainy Edmonton Transit video that captured a fatal stabbing on Canada Day two years ago could have been a key factor in acquitting Augustine Poitras of the crime, his defence lawyer said on Friday.
“If you look at that long enough and hard enough, over 200 or 300 times -or 600 times like we did -then it becomes clear that it couldn’t have been Mr. Poitras,” Dino Bottos said outside court after the verdict in Poitras’s murder trial was announced Friday afternoon.
Poitras was charged with seconddegree murder and possession of a dangerous weapon for the death of Shane Howarth, who was fatally stabbed just before midnight on July 1, 2009, at a downtown transit shelter. More than 50 bystanders were in the area at the time, and more than a dozen of them testified during Poitras’s trial.
Court also viewed a security video of the incident, but it was often unfocused and not clear.
After more than a day of deliberation, the jury foreperson told court the group was “not sure” if Poitras had unlawfully caused Howarth’s death or if he was in possession of a dangerous weapon, meaning that Poitras was found not guilty.
Bottos said his client, who showed no emotion when the verdict was announced, was relieved.
“He was just very relieved and he said that he had been praying all along,” Bottos said. “He was just full of thanks, gratitude and relief.”
Poitras, 43, went to police several days after the stabbing and identified himself as one of the men shown in the security video, which had been released to the public after Howarth died. He denied stabbing Howarth and indicated his acquaintance Jordan Belhumeur could have been the killer.
Police have been searching for Belhumeur, who is wanted on numerous outstanding warrants, for months.
Belhumeur would have “had a lot to answer for” had he testified at the trial, Bottos said.
Det. Bill Clark, who investigated t he case, said the fact that Belhumeur and other key witnesses could not be located had implications for the trial.
“Obviously the Crown was operating with some deficiencies, when you have key witnesses that we can’t find, that are not showing up.”
Edmonton police are not searching for other suspects, he said.
“The evidence just wasn’t there in the minds of the jury and that’s why we have the jury system and that’s their job to do, and I’m sure they analyzed it very carefully.”
He said it was frustrating that police had security video of the incident, but that wasn’t enough to secure a conviction. The case is an example of why good-quality cameras are important for solving crimes, he said.
One of the videos shown during Poitras’s trial shows Howarth falling to the ground at the bus stop near 100th Street and Jasper Avenue, after which a man in a grey hoodie aggressively extends his arms, with his palm upwards, over him.
Poitras identified himself as the man in the grey hoodie.
Court heard during the trial that Poitras’s group had clashed with Howarth and his friend before the Canada Day fireworks.
The groups ran into each other again at the transit shelter, where the stabbing occurred.
Poitras and Howarth did not know each other.
Howarth died of a stab wound to the heart. A knife was recovered from a garbage can at the scene, but no fingerprints were found on the weapon.
Howarth’s family had been in court through much of the trial but was not present when the verdict was announced Friday.
azabjek@edmontonjournal.com
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