Court heard that the morning after the Canada Day 2018 stabbing that left 23-year-old Esa Carriere dead, accused killer Noah Vaten came home and confessed to a roommate.
Vaten and Nathan Truant are currently both on trial for manslaughter.
A childhood friend of Vaten, Kolby Mckee Lanchick took the stand and wiped away tears as he testified that he considered Vaten to be family.
The two were living together at the time of the stabbing.
Lanchick described how their group of friends had spent the day drinking around town.
According to the witness, they split up later in the day, when Nathan Truant — who is also on trial for manslaughter — showed up with cocaine.
Lanchick said he went home after making Vaten promise he wouldn’t do any cocaine.
He said he knew his friend didn’t react well to it.
However, Lanchick said Vaten later texted him admitting that he had done cocaine.
The prosecution believes that Truant and Vaten later got into a fight with Carriere, after the victim allegedly hit Vaten.
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Court has previously watched surveillance video that allegedly shows a group of friends chasing Carriere before beating and kicking him on the ground.
The Crown has told court it believes that Vaten was the person who fatally stabbed the victim.
Court heard Lanchick and Vaten got into an argument when the accused returned home the next morning.
Lanchick said he had since heard of the stabbing and asked Vaten if he was involved.
He testified that Vaten admitted he had stabbed somebody, that he didn’t mean it and that he was sorry and scared.
Court watched silent surveillance video of the two men talking in the garage, in which Vaten appears to pull out a knife that didn’t appear to have any blood on it.
According to Lanchick, Vaten then re-enacted the stabbing.
Under cross-examination, Lanchick said that during earlier court proceedings, he had testified that Vaten had told him he had blacked out during the stabbing.
Court also heard that Vaten spent the night after the stabbing in the drunk tank because he caused a disturbance at the Rutland detachment.
The officer who arrested him testified that he did find a knife on Vaten, but that the weapon had poor retention, so they allowed him to keep it after he was released.
The officer also testified that he did not notice any blood on the knife or on Vaten’s clothing.
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