In Calgary courts: Earlier killing by murder suspect can be used as evidence for Crown to prove its case, judge rules​on April 9, 2025 at 9:45 pm

Const. Benjamin Stock was led through a series of video clips by Crown prosecutor Renato Di Lorenzo showing Adenyi being brought to the Westwinds Calgary police headquarters shortly after the March 18, 2022, killing of Vanessa Ladouceur.

The footage, taken with Stock’s body worn camera and surveillance cameras at the police station, show Adenyi entering the building and being escorted down a hall before being taken by elevator to the second floor.

Adenyi, wearing a hospital gown and with several fingers bandaged, showed no indication he was uncomfortable as he was led to a telephone room and left for 20 minutes and then taken to a police interview room.

Before being taken to those rooms Stock did a secondary pat down of the accused.

At one point the officer offered Adenyi a second chance to contact a lawyer, Stock said.

On the video Adenyi, wearing a mask over his mouth, made an inaudible response.

“It was hard for me to hear, but I believe he said ‘no,’” Stock told Di Lorenzo.

“We understand … that you didn’t intend for any of this to happen.”

Elfrieda Osipow, 91, suffered two fractures to her lower left leg, a fracture to her upper right arm and multiple rib fractures in the March 31, 2023, collision at Aero Drive and Aero Gate N.E.

“Elfrieda succumbed to her injuries and died in hospital four days later,” Koudmani told Bascom.

Reading from a statement of agreed facts, Koudmani said Leung, then 64, had stopped briefly at the intersection before turning his Lexus SUV left into the path of Peter Osipow’s oncoming Chevrolet Spark hatchback.

“Mr. Leung came to a stop prior to completing the left-hand turn onto Aero Gate,” Koudmani said.

“He stated in his traffic collision report that he had difficulty seeing because the sun was in his eyes.”

She said a traffic reconstruction expert determined that neither speed, nor impairment were factors in the collision.

Koudmani also told Bascom that Leung had no criminal record and no history of driving offences.

But Fagan told Dilts that Balogun and co-prosecutor Patrick Bigg had already conceded there wasn’t evidence to support the contention Homer was impaired by drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash, on Highway 7, just southwest of Okotoks.

According to a statement of agreed facts, Homer was westbound on the two-lane highway when at high speed she attempted to pass a car in her lane.

Christopher Burke, who was heading eastbound in a Honda Civic, could not avoid the head-on collision with Homer’s oncoming Cadillac Escalade.

An RCMP accident expert collected crash data from both vehicles, Balogun said.

“Prior to the collision (the Escalade) had been travelling upwards of 148 km/h, whereas (the Civic) was travelling 99 km/h,” the prosecutor told Dilts.

The posted speed limit on the roadway is 100 km/h.

“Multiple witnesses at the scene described the accused’s driving pattern as reckless and that when the pass was initiated, there was no way that she would have been able to complete the pass safely.”

“There’s blood loss that’s occurring from multiple sites,” Coetzee-Khan said.

“The cause of death was determined to be multiple sharp force trauma injuries and the manner of death was determined to be homicide.”

The pathologist said the hand wounds weren’t surprising considering most of the injuries suffered by Ladouceur were to her head area.

“They might not be, but they could be considered defensive injuries, especially with injuries that are located towards the face. A reaction usually from a person having injuries towards their face would be to protect their face and they could have stab wounds that could injure the hand,” he said.

“That could be considered defensive injuries.”

Last week jurors viewed extensive CCTV footage tracking both Ladouceur and Adenyi in the moments leading up to the attack.

“The video shows Ladouceur leaving her residence at around 6:27 a.m. and heading eastbound on 10th Avenue S.E.

Minutes later, Adenyi is seen exiting an apartment building at 10th Avenue and 1st Street S.W., pushing a bicycle, wearing a light-coloured jacket and carrying a backpack.

The trial is scheduled to last four weeks.

KMartin@postmedia.com

X: @KMartinCourts