Closing arguments underway in trial of man accused of murdering Pat Stay
Prosecutor made closing arguments on Friday, defence lawyer to deliver his on Monday
By process of elimination, there's only one person who could have possibly stabbed Pat Stay at a downtown Halifax bar nearly three years ago, a Crown attorney told a packed Dartmouth courtroom Friday.
Prosecutor Tanya Carter delivered her closing arguments in the second-degree murder trial of Adam Drake, 34, who is accused of fatally stabbing the battle rapper at the Yacht Club Social in the early hours of Sept. 4, 2022.
Carter spent most of the day using surveillance footage and still images from the bar that night to trace the steps of several people who were in the VIP section with Stay when he was stabbed.
There were eight other people around Stay, the Crown attorney said, and she argued each of them could be ruled out as a suspect by considering where they were standing and their behaviour before and after that moment.
"That only leaves Adam Drake," Carter told the Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury.
Video surveillance of the moment Stay was stabbed had previously been shown to the jury in the trial and was played again several times on Friday.
The video shows Stay, who has his back to the camera, getting into an altercation with someone soon after approaching a group of people in the bar.
Stay then turns away from the group and toward the camera, revealing his blood-soaked shirt, before he stumbles to the floor and makes his way out of the bar. He collapsed on the street outside the nightclub.
A knife isn't seen in the surveillance video, but Carter argued it does show Drake thrust toward Stay.
The blood splatter at the scene indicates the stabbing had to have occurred from the direction where Drake was standing, she argued.
Carter said she was going through the surveillance video, sometimes frame by frame, to show the jury what they should be looking for when scrutinizing the evidence during their deliberations.
Drake also threatened Stay on social media weeks before that night, she said, and he removed pictures of himself at the bar that night from his Instagram account to try to hide the fact he was there.
Drake has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Defence lawyer Michael Lacy, who didn't submit any evidence during the trial, is scheduled to deliver his closing arguments on Monday.
Justice Scott Norton is expected to give the jury instructions on Tuesday before they begin deliberating a verdict.
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