The trial of a man accused of killing a B.C. teen girl nearly six years ago resumed Monday, with his lawyer once again questioning the credibility of one of her friends.
Ibrahim Ali has pleaded not guilty to first degree murder in the killing. The identities of the victim and Monday’s witness are both protected by a publication ban.
The witness last week described her friend as a normal, innocent teenager who liked math, cartoons and going to the park and library. The victim didn’t have a boyfriend and wasn’t interested in boys, she testified.
On Friday, defence counsel Kevin McCullough began pressing back against that characterization, a line of questioning he continued as cross-examination resumed this week.
“I say the witness isn’t … being truthful,” he said at one point. “I’m building on the ridiculousness of the lie.”
On Friday, McCullough told the court that the victim did, in fact, have a boyfriend who had given a statement to police after the girl’s death.
On Monday he again pressed the witness about the matter, asking her if she knew her friend had one boyfriend, had broken up with him, and had started dating a different boy.
The witness responded that she didn’t know the victim had a boyfriend.
McCullough also asked the witness if she was aware her friend was depressed, to which she responded “no.”
He then asked why she told police after the killing that her last words to the victim had been “what’s wrong.”
The witness told the court it was just a greeting and that her English was problematic.
Last week, defence told the court the witness had told police the victim had tried to kill herself because her parents were divorcing.
The victim was last seen on July 18, 2017 and was found dead hours later in Burnaby’s Central Park.
Crown’s theory is that Ali grabbed her in the park and fatally strangled her in the course of sexually assaulting her. Prosecutors have told the jury they will prove that Ali’s DNA was found inside the girl, and that evidence suggests a non-consensual sexual encounter.
Defence has yet to lay out its case in a trial that could last up to three months.
— with files from Rumina Daya