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By the end of the first week of the trial for the man accused of killing Misha Pavelick, 11 people had taken the stand to give evidence, nine of whom attended the party that night in 2006.
The accused in the trial was a youth at the time, so he cannot be publicly named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Raymond McKay, who was Raymond McNabb at the time, added a new perspective on Friday afternoon. Among the witnesses who’d testified so far, he was one of the few who said he saw what happened to Misha immediately after the fight.
Read more:
- Visibly upset, like actually crying’: Witness describes actions of man accused of killing Misha Pavelick
- Putting pieces together: Court hears from party-goers at the Misha Pavelick murder trial
- ‘Screaming and running’: witnesses who were at the party testify at Misha Pavelick murder trial
The first sign of trouble McKay said he noticed during the party was yelling between a girl and Misha around 15 or 20 feet from the bonfire.
He remembered Misha seemed like he was trying to get away, but then he was hit with a bottle and went down.
McKay said a few guys were assaulting Misha, and that’s when Derek Enns ran past to help Misha. McKay said more guys got involved at that point, and Misha and Enns were each rolling around on the ground for a bit, he thought, separately.
He said Enns got up and someone rushed to get him to the hospital.
McKay said Misha was on his feet, too, but people were helping him walk. He said they were going to try to get Misha into the back of a truck to take him to get help, but didn’t manage to.
The last thing he remembered Misha doing was sitting on the ground, looking very pale.
“I didn’t talk to him, but I could hear people talking to him and his voice, it was scratchy or very soft,” McKay said.
Derek Enns describes night of party
The night Misha Pavelick was killed, another person left that campground with stab wounds — Derek Enns. And Enns explained to court on Friday what he remembered seeing and hearing that night.
Enns said he was standing near the bonfire that night and he saw Misha up the road a bit, surrounded by three or four other guys.
He described what happened in three parts.
The first was when Misha and his ex-girlfriend B.V. were talking to each other, a group surrounded them and it escalated to shouting.
Enns said he saw Misha try to get away, but the group of guys followed him and began pushing and throwing punches at him and, at some point, Misha was on the ground.
At that, Enns said he went and pulled one of the guys off Misha, but that person then went after Enns.
Enns said the guy chased after him, and he was stabbed multiple times but said he didn’t realize until he got up and someone else told him he was bleeding.
A friend rushed Enns to his truck and they took off toward the city to get Enns to the hospital. An ambulance picked Enns up a little ways away and he spent nearly a week recovering from stab wounds to his shoulder, buttocks, leg and torso.
The man who’d stabbed Enns was Scott Nelson. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced to three years in prison. Nelson also testified in the trial on Thursday.
After Enns got up from the attack, he said he didn’t see what happened with Misha.
Originally, Enns had told court he didn’t even manage to finish one beer before the events began but on cross-examination defence lawyer Andrew Hitchcock brought out the transcript from the preliminary hearing for Nelson’s trial in 2006, where Enns had said he’d had maybe four beers and smoked some marijuana.
Hitchcock also challenged the version of events Enns told about how he got involved in the fight. Pointing to the preliminary hearing transcript again, Hitchcock recited that Enns had said he went into the fray with a beer bottle, hit someone with it, and then grabbed a guy and threw him off Misha.
In court, Enns said that’s not what he remembers today, but accepts that’s what he testified to in 2006 and he agreed with Hitchcock that his memory was likely stronger closer to the events.
Craig Pratt also testified Friday
Adding to the testimony on Friday, Craig Pratt took the stand — he was a friend of the accused and was in his car that night in May 2006.
He gave relatively vague answers to questions about that night, sketching out generally what he thought happened, but also answering many questions with “I don’t remember.”
Pratt said he saw people running toward the fire at one point, it looked like there was a big group of people that looking like they were fighting, but by the time he got there it was all done with.
He was firm when he said he didn’t stab anyone that night.
However, Hitchcock grilled Pratt on whether he’d told anyone that he did. He brought out a transcript of his past testimony, and pointed out that previously Pratt has said he might have told someone that he’d killed Misha, most likely because he was drunk and a fool.
After that Pratt said it’s not possible that he killed Misha and doesn’t remember.
