The man accused of attempted murder and aggravated assault in relation to a March 2017 case of road rage told Edmonton police 17 times that he was not involved in the attack over the course of a nearly four-hour-long interrogation.
Jared Matthew Eliasson was 29 years old when he was honked at by another driver in the King Edward Park neighbourhood because his vehicle was blocking an intersection.
The other driver’s dash cam captured the dispute. At the time, Eliasson was delivering newspapers in the area.
After the honking, Eliasson moves his vehicle to allow Chelsey Schendzielorz to pass by on her way home. Two-and-a-half minutes later, parked in front of her house, Schendzielorz is brutally attacked as she exits her vehicle. Both of her arms are severely broken as she protects her head from blows delivered with a metal bar.
READ MORE: Trial begins for man accused in violent Edmonton road rage attack
Police arrested Eliasson the following day and interrogated him for nearly four hours. In that video, entered as evidence in court, there are 17 occasions where Eliasson denies having any involvement in the attack.
“I haven’t done anything,” he is heard saying in response to the detective’s queries. “I don’t know, I wasn’t there… I told you already I had nothing to do with it… I didn’t attack a female getting out of a vehicle.”
In the video, Eliasson frequently dodges the detective’s questions and asks multiple times about what exactly the dash cam captured and whether it shows him at the scene.
After three days of witness testimony, and evidence ranging from the dash cam video, to photos of Schendzielorz’s injuries, to the crowbar found in Eliasson’s vehicle, as well as his interrogation video, both sides presented their closing arguments.
The defence argued it was someone else who attacked Schendzielorz — a bigger man with blue eyes, who used a tire iron as his weapon, as described by Schendzielorz to investigators following the attack. The lawyer said there’s just not enough evidence to prove his client was the attacker.
The judge will give his decision on Friday at 2:30 p.m.