Crown prosecutors wrapped their case in the murder trial of a man accused of killing a young teen girl in a Burnaby, B.C., park six years ago on Friday.
Ibrahim Ali has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the slaying. The victim cannot be identified because of a publication ban.
It has been more than seven months since prosecutors first laid out their theory of the killing to a jury at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.
The trial, which was originally scheduled to last three months, has since heard from more than 40 witnesses.
Prosecutors have also entered about 50 exhibits of evidence, including videos of the victim recorded just hours before her half-naked body was found in Central Park in the early hours of July 19, 2017.
Crown prosecutors allege Ali dragged the girl off a trail in the park and sexually assaulted her before strangling her to death.
In her opening statement to the jury, lead prosecutor Isobel Keely told the 13 jurors the Crown would prove Ali’s DNA was found inside the girl.
Jurors later heard from an RCMP forensic biologist who testified the odds the DNA identified inside the victim belonged to someone other than Ali were one in 72-quintillion.
There have been dramatic moments in the case — including the death of expert witness Dr. Tracy Pickett.
The sexual assault expert went missing in the middle of cross-examination, and her body discovered was in September.
Vancouver police said the doctor’s death was not suspicious. Earlier this month, the trial judge ordered her evidence to be thrown out, telling the jury not to speculate on the matter.
While DNA is the strongest evidence, the rest of the case is circumstantial with no witnesses to the killing.
Ali’s defence team has yet to lay out its theory of what happened, though throughout cross-examination, has suggested the person who had sex with the teen may not have been the same person who killed her.
It remains unclear whether the defence will call any witnesses of its own.
— with files from Rumina Daya