Lawyers don’t hold back in closing arguments for Kamloops murder trial

“He is to be presumed innocent, and Mr. Fraser cannot be found guilty of second degree murder if the Crown does not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.

There’s no question of who killed Foster — both defence and Crown agree that it was Fraser — but there’s a question around what transpired in Foster’s trailer the afternoon of Feb. 11, 2017.

Fraser’s position is that him and Foster were having a relatively normal day when Foster told him that he had to kill him, although he didn’t want to. Fraser testified during trial that the last thing Foster told him was that he was part of the Independent Soldiers gang and was just following orders.

A struggle ensued, according to Fraser’s testimony, which led to him stabbing Foster in the neck among other places, and punching him in the face several times. He testified that at no point did Foster show any impacts of the injuries he was suffering, and said he was terrified and trying to get away from an imminent threat.

Michi said there were significant gaps in the Crown’s case, including no one being eye or ear witness to what transpired in the trailer. The first time any neighbours had heard anything, Michi said, was when Fraser ran out of the unit calling for help and for someone to phone police.

He also pointed to issues with the investigation itself, including police not taking a full inventory of all of the items in Foster’s house.

Although Crown has no obligation to provide a motive for a killing, Michi said the fact that Crown didn’t have a motive was one of the most troubling parts of the case. Michi gave credit to Fraser for taking the stand during trial, saying he was not shaken by cross examination, and added that his testimony raises the question of self defence.

If the jury concludes Fraser truly believed his life was in danger, acted to defend his own life, and his actions were reasonable in the circumstances — they must acquit him. If the jury concludes Fraser was provoked by threatening statements or actions by Foster, then he could be convicted of manslaughter instead of second-degree murder.

Crown prosecutor Alex Janse was point-blank to the jury, stating that Fraser lied on the stand and called his story “crazy”.

“Stephen Fraser murdered Cody Foster,” Janse said. “Mr. Fraser’s evidence was completely unbelievable… The accused’s testimony was not — to put it politely — strong. To put it not politely, he lied to you.”

Janse pointed to Foster’s blood alcohol level which was more than three times the legal limit at the time of his death.

“You know what an extremely drunk person looks like,” she said to the jury.

Janse said Foster went from sober to drunk in a relatively short period of time, and pointed to a lack of defensive wounds on both men as a sign that this was not a two-sided battle as Fraser had testified.

“He didn’t scratch Mr. Fraser, he didn’t fight back.”

Janse said Fraser met with police the day after Foster’s death, and described the incident as “boom, boom, done.”

“The only reasonable conclusion will be that Mr. Fraser was not acting in self defence. He wasn’t provoked,” Janse said. “The Crown is not saying that Mr. Fraser is a good liar, or that he’s good at covering up.”

“I have no idea why Mr. Fraser killed Cody that night. Mr. Fraser knows, but he’s not telling the truth,” Janse concluded.

The jury will return to the courtroom this afternoon (Dec. 11) to begin hearing instructions, which will continue into tomorrow morning. After that, they will retire to deliberate.

by Ashley Legassic

Lawyers don’t hold back in closing arguments for Kamloops murder trial

Our Community