Escalating tensions among roommates led to fatal Kelowna altercation: Crown counsel

Lorence Williams was being evicted from his home in May 2021, when an increasingly fraught relationship with his roommates turned fatal, a jury in his second-degree murder trial was told Monday.

During opening remarks of what is expected to be a multi-week trial, Crown counsel Trevor Sicotte said he will present evidence that shows Williams had been renting a basement bedroom in a home on Sexsmith Road for several months when he was evicted by the landlord, Cornel Fisher, who wanted to move his girlfriend in, and that’s when things started to go sour.

According to Sicotte, William’s relationship with Fisher as well as roommate Thomas Chadwick deteriorated rapidly, culminating in Chadwick’s death.

“The relationship between Mr. Williams and the other residents became increasingly difficult and on May 29, of 2021 both Mr. Williams and Mr. Fisher contacted the police to express concerns about one another,” Sicotte told the jury.

Fisher had called to ask for police assistance to evict Williams, Sicotte said. And, it seemed like a move was imminent as they and Chadwick started to pack Williams’s belongings.  Williams,  however,  left the home before they could finish, Sicotte said.

Williams’s belongings were then placed in a pickup truck outside the house and covered with a tarp and he didn’t return until, according to Sicotte, the following night. Chadwick, according to Sicotte, told Fisher that Williams had come by, though the belongings were still in the truck.

2:12 Kelowna man now facing second degree murder charge

“Later that evening, Fisher went outside to check on his car before going to bed,” Sicotte said. “He discovered Mr. Chadwick laying face-down at the bottom of the front steps, with a pool of blood around his head.”

Fisher told police later that he saw three of the vehicles parked in the driveway had their windshields broken.

“He also saw what he believed to be blood on the tarp that covered Mr. Williams’s belongings, in the back of the pickup truck. Paramedics and police officers were called immediately to the house Mr. Chadwick was found with significant injuries to his head and face and was pronounced dead at the scene.”

Sicotte said blood-stained pieces of decorative woodblock along with black-framed glasses were found near Chadwick’s body.

Crown alleges that Williams and Chadwick got into a fight. Sicotte said that he would present evidence that Chadwick was bludgeoned with a piece of wood used for decorative edging.  He also told jurors he intends to prove that Williams then went about smashing windows of nearby vehicles.

Opening arguments from Crown counsel are not considered evidence, but rather a roadmap of what the jury can expect to hear in the days and weeks to come, and Sicotte said the jury should anticipate hearing evidence from police officers, Fisher and his girlfriend as well as forensic efforts.

Surveillance video from several businesses will also be shown in an effort to highlight Williams’s movements in the time before and after the death.