VANCOUVER — A prosecutor Monday urged a jury to convict two men accused in a fatal attack on a Vancouver teen involving a samurai sword and a golf club.
Amritpal Dhillon has pleaded not guilty to the January 2013 second-degree murder of Manraj Akalirai, 19. Amritpaul Rakhra, Dhillon’s co-accused, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.
The Crown’s theory is that Rakhra used a golf club to strike Akalirai over the head.
Prosecutors allege Dhillon then used the sword to nearly decapitate the victim following a confrontation between two groups of men.
Both accused are arguing that they acted in self-defence and should therefore be acquitted, but Crown counsel Brendan McCabe told the jury that they should reject those submissions.
In final submissions, McCabe said jury members should conclude that both men were guilty of their crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.
“He cut his head off with a sword,” McCabe said of Dhillon. “What possible intention could there be from that?”
With a second-degree murder charge, the onus is on the Crown to prove that the accused intended to commit the murder.
A Crown witness, who can be identified only as Witness X, testified that Rakhra struck first, followed by Dhillon, during the assault in the front yard of a home in East Vancouver.
Dhillon testified that he had delivered the fatal blow after Akalirai lunged at him with the sword. Then, he said, Rakhra struck him with the club.
McCabe argued that Dhillon’s version of events was illogical and should be rejected by the jury.
He said that while Witness X was an “unsavoury” witness, his version was corroborated by other evidence.
Earlier Monday, Lisa Jean Helps, representing Dhillon, told the jury that Dhillon raised the sword only once when the victim came at him with a knife. She said that if the jurors accept Dhillon’s version, they must acquit him of the second-degree murder charge.
The defence lawyer conceded that some of the actions of her client in the lead-up to the slaying didn’t look good.
But Helps told the jury to set aside that evidence and instead focus on what happened in the front yard. She said her client was “very scared” when Akalirai came at him with the knife: “He … feared for his life.”
David Karp, a lawyer for Rakhra, argued there was no evidence that his client had done anything to assist in the death of the victim.
He said the best scenario for the Crown was that Rakhra used the golf club to strike Akalirai once in the back, after the fatal blow with the sword had been delivered.
Karp also questioned the credibility of Witness X and argued that if anybody is to blame for the tragedy, it was Witness X for bringing the sword and a machete to the fight.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Nathan Smith is expected to charge the jurors today, after which the jury will begin its deliberations.
