‘We stabbed a guy’: Witnesses at Misha Pavelick murder trial say accused killer bragged

On Tuesday morning, witnesses at the trial for the man accused of murdering Misha Pavelick described their encounters with him on the night Pavelick was killed in 2006.

Two witnesses said they remembered the accused saying either “I stabbed a guy” or “we stabbed a guy.”

The man is charged with second-degree murder in connection with Pavelick’s death, but he cannot be named publicly because he was a youth at the time. Witnesses who were under 18 at the time are also not being named.

Read more:

• Four women add their memories from the night Misha Pavelick died
• Very pale: A last memory of Misha Pavelick at the trial for his murder
• Putting pieces together: Court hears from party-goers at the Misha Pavelick murder trial

Josh Senkow, Daniel Price and a woman, A.L., said they were driving around in Senkow’s mother’s minivan along with a few other people on the night of May 21, 2006.

Senkow said they saw a bunch of people and vehicles in the parking lots closest to the beach in the community of Regina Beach, and they went to check it out.

Previous witnesses in the trial said a group of people, including the accused, gathered at Regina Beach following the grad party where Pavelick was killed.

Senkow said he recognized the accused at Regina Beach because they’d previously played baseball together. He said he opened the door of the van and shouted for the accused, and he and a few others came over to the vehicle to talk.

At one point, Senkow said a member of the group that included the accused asked if they’d heard the sirens. Senkow said someone claimed to have “shanked some kid with a beer bottle,” or words to that effect, but he wasn’t clear on who might have said it.

Price and A.L. said the accused was the one who spoke about the violence.

A.L. said the accused seemed excited, like he was full of adrenaline, and claimed he’d stabbed someone.

Price remembered the accused saying “We stabbed a guy,” claiming those were the exact words he used.

“When someone says the statement ‘We stabbed someone,’ that’s an important event that doesn’t slip your mind too easily,” Price said to defence lawyer Andrew Hitchcock when he was questioned about his memory.

Price and Senkow said the accused and another person who was with him stepped in front of the minivan’s headlights to see if they had any blood on them. Neither saw blood on the accused, but both said the other person had blood around his midsection and legs.

A.L. wasn’t sure about whether she saw blood on the man accused of Pavelick’s murder.

Read more:

• ‘Screaming and running’: witnesses who were at the party testify at Misha Pavelick murder trial
• Uninvited guests, a grad party, an ex-girlfriend: Crown lawyer lays out case in Misha Pavelick trial
• Nineteen years later, trial to start for man accused of killing Misha Pavelick

In his questions to the witnesses, Hitchcock pointed out details they couldn’t remember – whether music was playing in the van, who else was there with them, and whether or not there were any other conversations that night.

Hitchcock also questioned the witnesses about when they brought the information to police.

The RCMP released a podcast in 2021 about Pavelick’s death and appealed for more information from the public. A.L. said she came forward to tell police what she heard that night after listening to the podcast.

Price said he went to police in 2014. When asked why he didn’t tell police before that, he said he believed Senkow had spoken to police already. Senkow confirmed he spoke to the RCMP within days of Pavelick’s death.