Jury to begin deliberations in Ibey murder trial

WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of alleged sexual assault.

A jury will begin deliberating on Tuesday after hearing closing submissions in the trial of Ottawa man Nikolas Ibey, who is charged with first-degree murder for killing Savanna Pikuyak in September 2022.

On Monday, Ibey's lawyer told the jury that the 35-year-old did not sexually assault his new roommate while killing her. 

But in her closing submission shortly afterward, assistant Crown attorney Sonia Beauchamp said sexual assault was the only possible explanation for how the 22-year-old Inuk woman came to be stripped, bound and gagged in her bedroom. 

It is not disputed that Ibey killed Pikuyak on Sep. 11, 2022, days after she moved into the Nepean home he was living in.

Ibey pled guilty to second-degree murder at the outset of his trial in Ottawa's Superior Court earlier this month but his plea was rejected by the Crown. 

The Crown argues that Ibey also sexually assaulted and forcibly confined Pikuyak, elevating the offence to first-degree murder. 

At stake is the potential length of time Ibey will spend behind bars. A first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years, while a second-degree murder conviction has a lower minimum non-parole period of 10 years.

Ibey used drugs, searched online for sex

Since Ibey's trial began on Nov. 13, a jury has heard how Pikuyak responded to a post Ibey made on Facebook listing a room for rent. Pikuyak had travelled to Ottawa from Nunavut the week before to attend Algonquin College, where she planned to study to become a nurse. 

But just days after Pikuyak moved in, Ibey killed her, following a lengthy cocaine binge in which he had spent hours searching online for sex, visiting hundreds of websites and exchanging nearly 1,000 messages with dozens of sex workers.

Pikuyak's body was found on her bed with her bloodied pants and underwear by her feet and her top and bra pushed over her chest. 

Ibey's DNA was found on Pikuyak's breasts, and on the waistband of her underwear. Pikuyak's DNA was found inside Ibey's underpants. 

But defence lawyer Ewan Lyttle said this circumstantial evidence did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ibey had sexually assaulted Pikuyak, instead proposing that he could have killed her for non-sexual reasons, or that he killed her following a consensual sexual encounter.

Ibey's silence during his trial could not be used against him, Lyttle noted, as Ibey sat slumped and motionless in the dock.

"What happened was awful, heartbreaking and tragic," Lyttle said at the start of his closing submission. "But Mr. Ibey did not commit sexual assault."

DNA evidence lacking, defence argues

Urging the jury to set aside emotion, Lyttle told them: "If you think Mr. Ibey probably sexually assaulted the deceased, it's not good enough. You have to be sure." 

Pikuyak could have been undressed before the attack began, Lyttle suggested: "The bedroom is a place where people are found in a state of undress."

Nor was the DNA evidence conclusive, the defence argued. Ibey's DNA was not found on Pikuyak's genitals, and her DNA was not found on his genitals. 

"The presence of DNA is not as helpful, but the absence of DNA is telling," Lyttle said. 

Turning to the allegation of forcible confinement, Lyttle said for it to elevate the killing to first-degree murder, it must be shown to have been a separate offence.

"If they are subsumed in the same act there is no forcible confinement," he said, arguing there was a lack of evidence for two discrete acts. 

'Undeniable sexual assault'

Beauchamp began her closing submission by showing the jury photos of Pikuyak's body as it was found: face down on her bed, with her legs spread and her mouth, nose and eyes tightly bound with a sweater.

"These pictures tell it all," she said, as supporters of Pikuyak in the public gallery sobbed into tissues. "These are the pictures of a first-degree murder and an undeniable sexual assault."

Blood stains on the carpet and on the front of Pikuyak's pants showed that the attack began at her bedroom door while she was still clothed, Beauchamp said, arguing that this showed she was forcibly confined before being sexually assaulted and killed. 

There was no blood on her torso from her head wounds, Beauchamp noted, which would be expected had she been naked before the attack began.

"There is no reason other than a sexual assault to beat her, confine her, bind her, gag her, and remove her top or pants," she concluded. "She died suffocated and stangled. Nikolas Ibey is guilty of first-degree murder."

The jury will begin deliberating Tuesday after receiving final instructions from Justice Robert Maranger.