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A Windsor lawyer “denies it was intentional” if he left the impression with a key witness in a homicide case that she’d be provided “witness safety” if she cooperated with police.
In startling testimony earlier within the first-degree homicide trial of Kahli Johnson-Phillips, 27, that witness instructed the courtroom beneath oath she falsely named the accused in a sworn police assertion after having been “coached” to take action by her lawyer. In return, she testified, the “deal” specified she’d be entered right into a witness safety program with a brand new title and residential.
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Assistant Crown legal professional Bryan Pillon instructed the Superior Courtroom of Justice jury after that testimony that “there was no deal, I’ll be very clear to you.” Throughout subsequent cross-examination, the lawyer for Johnson-Phillips, Michael Moon, mentioned: “Your lawyer lied to you. It was your lawyer who betrayed you.”
In what Justice Pamela Hebner instructed jurors was “a fragile challenge,” the lawyer in query was not referred to as in to testify for his model of occasions however relatively a written “agreed assertion of details” was entered as trial proof.
Within the three-page doc, the lawyer said he had not saved written notes nor may he recall what was mentioned along with his incarcerated shopper throughout at the least seven conferences on the South West Detention Centre previous to her videotaped interview with a Windsor Police Service detective on July 10, 2019.
In that six-hour interview, performed in courtroom earlier, the lady, herself going through a cost of first-degree homicide on the time in connection to the case, named the accused. She instructed the officer beneath oath that Johnson-Phillips drove the Nissan Altima she was in from Mississauga the evening that Jason Pantlitz-Solomon, 20, was killed in downtown Windsor shortly earlier than 3 a.m. on Aug. 27, 2018.
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In his assertion on Friday, the Windsor lawyer mentioned his shopper acted in opposition to his directions in giving that police interview, however he added that he had not secured written instructions or a waiver from his shopper prematurely, one thing that will be in keeping with commonplace apply for Ontario legal professionals.
Friday’s assertion learn to the jury additionally mentioned: “A failure to maintain notes is inconsistent with finest practices for competent counsel.”
The lawyer in query ended his affiliation with that shopper shortly after her assertion to police after disclosing the very fact he had acted earlier that 12 months for Jerome Solomon, the dual brother of the deceased.
The agreed assertion of details concludes with the lawyer’s acknowledgment that “on an goal evaluation, his actions in service of his shopper … at finest, fell under the usual anticipated of an affordable and competent counsel licensed by the Legislation Society of Ontario.”
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Eight weeks after the beginning of the trial, the Crown on Friday concluded its case. The defence mentioned it could not be calling any witnesses of its personal.
The jury is predicted to listen to closing arguments on Nov. 20.
Additionally on Friday, following an utility by the defence, Justice Hebner agreed to amend the second prison rely in opposition to Johnson-Phillips — for the wounding that evening of Pantlitz-Solomon’s girlfriend, who was shot within the leg — from tried homicide to the lesser offence of aggravated assault.
dschmidt@postmedia.com
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