Warning, this article contains potentially offensive language.
A woman accused of encouraging the single punch that ultimately killed 22-year-old Michael Page-Vincelli at a Burnaby Starbucks in July 2017 said she doesn’t believe in backing away from her bullies – and Page-Vincelli had bullied her.
Oldouz Pournouruz has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in Page-Vincelli’s death.
She testified in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver last week.
On July 12, 2017, she said she had been in her car waiting for her boyfriend and co-accused Lawrence Sharpe in front of the Kensington Square Royal Bank, when she noticed a man (Page-Vincelli) smoking a cigarette and “glaring” at her from just outside the bank doors.
She said she looked away several times, but he continued to stare at her, which made her uncomfortable.
According to Pournouruz, he had then come up to her car window and said, "That’s what you get for saying no" and thrown his still-lit cigarette butt at her, burning a hole in her shirt.
That sparked an argument, during which she had gotten out of the car and the pair had sworn at each other, with Page-Vincelli calling her a “dirty immigrant” and "c**t," according to Pournouruz.
Pournouruz, meanwhile, said she had called Page-Vincelli a “f***ing prick,” asked him what was wrong with him and told him to “get away from her.”
When he didn’t leave her alone, she said she had warned him he’d better go before her boyfriend came out of the bank and beat him up.
She said the warning had been an “empty threat” just to get Page-Vincelli to leave.
“I was out of options,” she said. “What else am I able to say at that point?”
Near the end of the argument, she said she had thrown the cigarette she had been smoking onto the ground between them in frustration.
She said Page-Vincelli had picked it up, taken a drag and said, “Thanks for the smoke.”
She had responded by saying, “Enjoy your new diseases,” she said, to which he had said, “You just admitted you have diseases, bitch.”
Page-Vincelli had then walked towards Starbucks, according to Pournouruz.
During cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Colleen Smith asked Pournouruz if she had sworn at Page-Vincelli and told him to enjoy his new diseases because she was angry at what he had done.
“No. I was upset,” she said. “I was actually wanting to cry but nothing was coming out. I was shaking. I was trembling. I felt like a little girl inside. I felt like I was five years old and my mom wasn’t there to help me ...”
After Page-Vincelli left, she said she no longer felt safe in her car and went into the bank, where she told Sharpe a man had thrown a cigarette at her for no reason.
Smith asked Pournouruz why she had not walked away from the dispute at that point.
“I was just bullied, and I don’t believe in running away from my bullies,” she said.
She said she had not told Sharpe to do anything to Page-Vincelli and had only led him to the Starbucks and pointed Page-Vincelli out because her boyfriend had asked her who had thrown the cigarette.
“I don’t order people to beat anybody up. I’m not that type of person,” she said.
She said she felt “secure” bringing Sharpe to the Starbucks because she had never seen her boyfriend act violently before.
When Sharpe punched Page-Vincelli almost immediately after she pointed him out, Pournouruz said she had been “surprised.”
The trial is expected to wrap up this week.
