Court: Witness, Pathologist Testify In Murder Trial
[Written by Don Burgess]
A jury heard from a forensics expert how two bullets that entered the back of Lorenzo ‘Wa Wa’ Stovell were the fatal shots that killed him.
Prosecutors allege that Zakai Cann, 27, and Trevone Saltus, 28, were part of a group of men that descended upon a parked party bus at Woody’s on September 23, 2012 and murdered Mr. Stovell, who was partially paralyzed due to a previous shooting.
A third defendant, Cordova Simons-Marshall, 26, is alleged to have hidden the 9mm Smith and Wesson murder weapon after the fact. All three men deny the charges.
Forensic Pathologist Testifies
Dr. Christopher Milroy, chief forensic pathologist at The Ottawa Hospital and also a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Ottawa, testified Mr. Stovell was struck by four bullets.
Prosecutor Carrington Mahoney asked Dr. Milroy about the gunshots Mr. Stovell sustained.
The forensic pathologist said one entrance gunshot wound was on the left side of the back and a second entrance wound was lower down on the left side of the back than the first.
Dr. Milroy said these two gunshots caused “bleeding into the chest’.
“These two wounds were the fatal wounds that killed this person,” the forensic pathologist said. “Death would have been very rapid in this case. I would have expected him to die within a minute or two of the infliction.”
He added Mr. Stovell had a third gunshot wound which exited out through the left shoulder, while a fourth bullet entered from the front of the thigh which fractured the femur and exited out through the back of the thigh.
Under cross-examination from Mr. Cann’s lawyer, Charles Richardson, Dr. Milroy admitted the paths of the shots could have been altered by hitting the bones in Mr. Stovell’s body.
Female Witness Testifies
A female witness said a bus had been rented to celebrate her birthday with her female friends and family.
The witness said they arrived at Woody’s between 9pm to 10pm with Mr. Stovell, who was a late invite to the party. He stayed on the bus while all the females exited the vehicle.
The witness said she checked on Mr. Stovell once before walking with a male friend to his nearby house to get towels to go swimming.
She said they “heard gunshots still heading towards his house. We asked each other if it was gunshots but because the music kept playing we thought nothing happened.”
The female witness said as they continued on to his house, a person came up behind them from the general direction of Woody’s. That person talked with her friend and then went in the opposite direction of them.
The female witness said that person was taller and bigger than her and was wearing dark clothing.
Upon reaching her friend’s house, he went inside while she received a phone call stating that Mr. Stovell had been shot. When she and her friend ran back to Woody’s, the music was still playing and people were still “acting normal.”
Elizabeth Christopher, Mr. Simons-Marshall’s lawyer, cross-examined the female witness, who denied telling the male friend that Mr. Stovell would be on the party bus.
“No, I was not in contact [with him] throughout the day,” the female witness said. “No one knew Wa Wa was on the bus because it was supposed to be an all-girl bus.” She added it was a last minute decision to bring Mr. Stovell along.
The defendants deny the charges and the trial continues.
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