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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Slain man was drunk, disorderly: girlfriend

By: Mike McIntyre

3/02/2010 1:00 AM

A Winnipeg university student was drunk, shirtless and challenging people to fight in the moments before he was stabbed to death outside a downtown bar, a trial heard Tuesday.

Angie Pfeifer told jurors Tuesday she feared her boyfriend, Ming Huynh, was headed for trouble based on his bizarre behaviour.

"I had a bad feeling," she testified.

Huynh, 24, suffered fatal injuries outside Club Desire in April 2006. Three men -- Glen Monkman, Norris Ponce and Carlos Tavares -- have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Their jury trial began last month.

Pfeifer admitted Huynh was prone to violence, especially when he'd been drinking and using steroids. She said he was also known to use cocaine and was selling the drug for profit.

Huynh was extremely intoxicated on the night he was killed and had gotten into a verbal dispute with people on the main floor of the bar earlier in the night, Pfeifer said. She encouraged him to go upstairs to calm down, but he left a short time later, still agitated.

"He said 'I'm gonna go somewhere, I'll be back in a while,' " she said.

Pfeifer said she went outside later, only to learn her boyfriend had collapsed in a pool of blood. Dozens of potential witnesses were standing around the chaotic scene, she said. Police quickly put her in a cruiser car as a potential witness as she anxiously waited to learn Huynh's fate.

"They didn't tell me if he was dead or not, I was still hoping," she said.

The Crown's first-degree murder case rests largely on the evidence of Tavares' cousin, Danny Simao, who finally ended two weeks of testimony and cross-examination Tuesday morning. Simao spent so long on the stand because of his need for frequent breaks, caused by a stomach disorder and bouts of vomiting in the courtroom while being grilled by defence lawyers about alleged contradictions in his evidence.

Simao told jurors how he flew in from Ontario and was picked up at the airport by his cousin and the two other accused in a rented sport utility vehicle. Simao claims Tavares was upset after being stabbed at his sister's wedding social. Simao said his cousin began discussing going after Huynh, believing he was responsible.

An autopsy revealed Huynh was stabbed three times in his chest and once on his left cheek. One of the stab wounds to his chest severed a vein, causing his death.

Jurors are expected to hear this week from many people who were at the bar that night. The trial is slated to last until the end of February.

www.mikeoncrime.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 3, 2010 B2