Video captures accused killer taking bus to crime scene

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/04/2015 (3828 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

wfpvideo:4173402862001:wfpvideo

Surveillance video has been released of an accused killer using Winnipeg Transit to travel to and from the scene of the crime.

Jurors viewed the images last week, which show Treyvonne Willis shortly before, and after, Kaila Tran was stabbed to death outside her St. Vital apartment complex. On Tuesday, the trial judge allowed for media outlets to show the exhibits.

Willis, 22, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder for the June 2012 attack that left Tran dead. The 27-year-old woman was stabbed more than 30 times in the neck and head as part of what the Crown alleges was a murder-for-hire plot. The Crown is expected to finish its case later this week.

Willis is accused of killing Tran to get out of a massive drug debt. The key witness against him is a former friend, Tremaine Sam-Kelly, who can also be seen in some of the video.

He told jurors how he spent considerable time with Willis in the days before the slaying, then joined him on the morning it happened. He said he only agreed to provide “emotional support” for his friend and was stunned at the brutality of Willis’s actions.

“I just thought she’d get slapped around a little bit and then get jacked,” he said on the witness stand last week. “Robbery is a lot different than murder. It happened a lot differently than I thought.”

Sam-Kelly had met Willis a couple of months earlier and the pair spent time doing drugs together, including in the hours before the fatal ambush. He said Willis was a desperate man willing to do anything to dig himself out of a huge financial hole linked to his drug habit.

He claimed Willis was approached by someone — Sam-Kelly said he doesn’t know who — and given an “out.” He said Willis told him he knew Tran through her boyfriend, and that Tran was going to be targeted because she was a “snitch” against her boyfriend.

“(Willis) said if we get rid of her, he can give me the money, the boyfriend,” said Sam-Kelly.

He said the plan involved stealing items, including Tran’s bank cards and car, that would ultimately be used by Tran’s boyfriend to give money to Willis so he could pay drug debts.

But things didn’t go according to plan. On June 19, Sam-Kelly said he joined Willis as they went to Tran’s apartment, only to discover she had already left for work. Video shows them travelling by bus together en route to the attack.

So they returned the following morning, a bit earlier, and waited for her to come out once they confirmed her car was there.

Sam-Kelly said waited while Willis went to the nearby banks of the Seine River and changed into some black clothing he’d borrowed from friends, then returned moments later holding a knife in his gloved hand. Sam-Kelly said he watched as Tran emerged from her building.

Under cross-examination, defence lawyers for Willis suggested Sam-Kelly altered the truth to suit his own purposes. They noted police originally told Sam-Kelly they were going to charge him with murder, but didn’t when he pointed the finger at Willis. Lawyers suggested Sam-Kelly “actively encouraged” Willis to do what he did, or perhaps he was even the real killer while Willis was the one in the “support” role who stood by and did nothing.

Police recovered the murder weapon in the Seine River, which is where Sam-Kelly claims Willis said he dumped it. Jurors viewed video of Willis on a Winnipeg Transit bus 30 minutes after the killing, wearing different clothing than he arrived with.

www.mikeoncrime.com