WINNIPEG – It’s been two and half years since Kaila Tran, 26, was stabbed to death outside her St. Vital apartment, allegedly over a drug debt.
Treyvonne Willis, 22 is facing a first degree murder charge and Tuesday a jury heard shocking allegations about why Tran was attacked.
On the morning of June 20th, 2012 as she walked to her car on her way to work, Tran was suddenly attacked, stabbed multiple times and died.
Court heard Tran’s death was to repay a drug debt. The jury was told, they may never know the details of the deal.
It was 7:00 in the morning. Tran got to her car, opened the door before she was stabbed to death. Her screams alerted residents who witnessed a young man run away towards the Seine River. Those witnesses will testify in the 1st degree murder trial of Willis which is expected to last for three weeks.
Crown Prosecutor Chantal Boutin told the jury, “A young man got mixed up in drug dealing and had to repay a debt he couldn’t pay. He made a devastating and deadly decision to repay that debt…Kaila Tran’s murder was planned, premeditated and carried out by Treyvonne Willis.”
Boutin also said the day before the murder, Willis took a city bus with a friend to Tran’s apartment with the intention to kill her, he changed his clothes, made his way to her building but Tran had already left for work.
That would be Tran’s last day alive.
A police detective testified divers found a backpack belonging to Willis and a kitchen knife tossed into the seine river.
Willis sat quietly in the prisoners box, with a fresh haircut and wearing a black suit. Wednesday, the jury will hear emotional testimony from residents who tried to save Tran.
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