Three different versions of the punch that killed 22-year-old Michael Page-Vincelli at a Burnaby Starbucks two-and-a-half years ago were put to a B.C. Supreme Court jury this week in the trial of a couple accused of manslaughter in his death.
Lawrence Sharpe and Oldouz Pournouruz have pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Page-Vincelli died after a punch from Sharpe inside the Kensington Square Starbucks on July 12, 2017 knocked him back, causing his head to hit the ground and possibly a counter.
Self-defence
In closing submissions this week, Sharpe’s lawyer Jack Thorhaug argued the 40-year-old had acted in self-defence.
According to Sharpe, Page-Vincelli had come towards him with his hands up and Sharpe punched him to protect himself.
A Starbucks security video in fact shows Page-Vincelli eating a bag of chips when Sharpe punches him, but Thorhaug said the camera angle doesn’t capture Page-Vincelli’s face or left side.
Thorhaug also argued there were subtle indications on the video that Page-Vincelli had moved towards Sharpe before Sharpe strode towards him and punched him.
No weapon was recovered from the scene, only a bag of chips and a pack of cigarettes and lighter from Page-Vincelli’s pocket.
Co-accused
Pournouruz is accused of encouraging the punch because of an altercation she and Page-Vincelli had had in front of the Royal Bank next door to the Starbucks while her boyfriend was inside the bank.
According to Pournouruz, Page-Vincelli had stared at her while she sat in her car outside the bank with the windows down. When she didn’t return his gaze, she said he had thrown a still-lit cigarette butt at her, saying “That’s what you get for saying no.”
An argument had ensued, during which the pair yelled and swore at each other.
Sometime during the dispute, Pournouruz had warned Page-Vincelli he’d better leave before Sharpe came out of the bank and beat him up.
After Page-Vincelli walked off to Starbucks, Pournouruz went into the bank. Security video shows her and Sharpe speaking briefly before walking briskly to the Starbucks.
The Starbucks video shows Pournouruz enter the coffee shop first and point to Page-Vincelli, before Sharpe steps around her, strides up to Page-Vincelli and punches him in the face.
The pair are then seen walking quickly out of the Starbucks back to their car.
‘Solidarity and refuge’
Pournouruz’ lawyer Pamela Smith-Gander argued her client could have had no idea what Sharpe was going to do, since he was behind her and she had never seen him commit a violent act.
Smith-Gander said there had been no time for the couple to formulate a plan to assault Page-Vincelli, and that Pournouruz’ statement that Sharpe would beat him up was not a threat but a way to get Page-Vincelli away from her because he had frightened her and no one had come to her aid.
"Ms. Pournouruz did what any one of us would have done," Smith-Gander said.
She argued Pournouruz had not gone into the bank to talk to Sharpe because he was a large, six-foot-three man capable of beating Page-Vincelli up but because she was seeking “solidarity and refuge” after a frightening ordeal.
Walking to the Starbucks and pointing out Page-Vincelli had been a reasonable response to her boyfriend asking her who had thrown the cigarette, Smith-Gander argued.
Smith-Gander described Pournouruz as a credible witness who had not faltered under intense cross-examination and urged the jury to accept her evidence over the prosecution’s “essentially circumstantial” case.
'I f***ing clocked him'
Crown prosecutor Colleen Smith, however, urged the jury to reject the testimony of both Sharpe and Pournouruz as inconsistent and not credible.
She opened her final submissions with a statement Sharpe had made to an undercover officer planted with him in the Burnaby RCMP detachment cells that contradicts his claim that he had acted in self-defence.
“He bullied my girlfriend, and I f***ing clocked him for it,” Sharpe had told the officer.
Smith said the video clearly shows Sharpe punch Page-Vincelli without warning right after entering the Starbucks while Page-Vincelli was eating a bag of chips.
She argued the subtle indication Page-Vincelli had moved before being hit were likely the result of him turning his body to avoid the blow, not moving towards Sharpe, since his feet don’t appear to move.
Smith told the jury Pournouruz’ claims of extreme fear also were not believable, since a number of witnesses testified that both Pournouruz and Page-Vincelli had argued loudly and sworn at each other, and Pournouruz herself had testified she had been bullied and didn’t believe in backing away from bullies.
Smith argued the video evidence and witness descriptions of Pournouruz’ conduct and demeanour before the punch proved beyond a reasonable doubt that she had not been “frozen” with fear, as she claimed, but had been “determined to get her apology and that Mr. Sharpe was her instrument for getting it.”
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mary Humphries is expected to give her final instructions to the jury on Thursday and Friday.
