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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Murder-trial jury deliberations resume today

By: Mike McIntyre and Gabrielle Giroday

Posted: 02/26/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

THE fate of three men charged with a deadly stabbing outside a downtown Winnipeg bar now rests in the hands of a jury.Deliberations began Thursday afternoon in the high-profile homicide case following seven weeks of testimony. Jurors spent the night sequestered in a hotel and will resume weighing the evidence this morning.

Glen Sherman Monkman has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, while Norris Ponce and Carlos Tavares are accused of second-degree murder.

Ming Hong Huynh, 24, was knifed outside Club Desire on Bannatyne Avenue in April 2006.

The key issue for jurors is whether to believe the testimony of the Crown's star witness, Danny Simao, who claims he overheard a plan to kill Huynh while inside a car with the three accused.

Monkman's lawyer, Jeff Nichols, claims Simao is a "100 per cent untrustworthy" witness.

Simao lives in Ontario, but was visiting his cousin Tavares and partying with the accused on the night of the fatal stabbing, the jury was told. He claims the three men discussed an attack on Huynh before the group arrived outside Club Desire, and that they dumped the murder weapon in a river after they fled the stabbing. No murder weapon was recovered. The Crown argued the accused planned the attack on Huynh as revenge for another stabbing at a wedding social in March 2006.

Monkman has admitted stabbing Huynh four times in the chest and cheek with a small knife while horrified bystanders watched, but claims he should only be found guilty of manslaughter based on the fact he was provoked.

Ponce is accused of distracting Huynh on the street before Monkman stabbed him. Tavares is accused of driving a getaway car, a cream-coloured Lincoln Navigator. Lawyers for both men say there is no credible evidence linking them to the attack .

www.mikeoncrime.com gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 26, 2010 A11

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