Jury hears murder confession from Trevyonne Willis

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This article was published 20/04/2015 (3806 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Trevyonne Willis finally broke down after several hours of intense police interrogation and admitted he carried out the murder-for-hire of Kaila Tran.

Willis, 22, provided a full confession during a videotaped interview with homicide detectives. Members of a Winnipeg jury viewed the statement on Monday morning.

“I (expletive) up,” Willis says at one point in the video. “ I deserve to go to jail for what I did. I murdered her.”

Willis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree for the June 2012 ambush and killing of Tran, 27, outside her St. Vital apartment block. He told police he specifically targeted the young woman after someone made him a lucrative financial offer – kill Tran and have a massive drug debt disappear.

“It’s (expletive) up, I know this. I apologize to the family,” he said.

But Willis refused to say who put him up to the killing, despite repeated pleadings from police to identify the mastermind.

“I start dropping names and it gets worse,” said Willis. “It could put my family in danger.”

Willis also says he was never told why Tran had to be killed.

“I just knew she had to be dealt with and that was it,” he said. “I deal with some bad people. I had to do what I felt necessary at the time.”

Jurors began watching the videotaped interview last week. Willis spent the first few hours saying nothing while two detectives could barely hide their disgust at what happened. At one point, they bring out gruesome photos of Tran’s dead body, which contained more than 30 stab wounds to her neck, face and head.

“This is no animal. You’re no hunter. This is a human being and you hacked her up,” Det.-Sgt. Miles Riddell told Willis while displaying the photos in front of him. “Look at what you did to her. What kind of animal does this? I hope you enjoyed your last six days since you killed this girl. Because you may not see the outside world for 25 years.”

The key witness against Willis is his former friend, Tremaine Sam-Kelly, who testified earlier this month 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.

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.” Willis explained 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 such as Tran’s bank cards, and even her car, that would ultimately be used by Tran’s boyfriend to give money to Willis that he could use against his debts.

During cross-examination of Sam-Kelly, lawyers for Willis suggested he was the real killer. But in the video statement shown to jurors on Monday, Willis denied Sam-Kelly played any role.

“Tremaine didn’t do nothing,” he told police.

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