Bartender testifies accused killer threatened her after fatal fight with restaurant owner

A woman who confronted accused killer Curtis Dalebozik moments after a violent street fight that left restaurant owner Kyriakos Vogiatzakis dead or dying on the ground said Dalebozik threatened to do the same to her before running away, a trial heard Tuesday.

Dalebozik, 40, has pleaded not guilty to one count each of manslaughter and uttering threats in connection to the fatal Jan. 24, 2024, altercation outside the Cork and Flame restaurant on Portage Avenue.

Shanise Powell told court she was tending bar when a customer walked into the restaurant and told staff of a fight in the parking lot.

“I went outside and noticed it was two men in an altercation, and one was laying down, so I went back to get (the line cook) to help me,” Powell testified.

Powell said she recognized the standing man as someone staff had nicknamed Jesus due to his long hair and beard, and who on a number of occasions had been seen “loitering” around the restaurant entrance, asking customers for spare change or looking for cigarette butts.

“I walked up to him and said, ‘What’s going on? What happened?’” Powell said. “He said, ‘He pulled my f—king hair, so I laid him down.’

When Powell told the man he could have just killed someone, he said: “Shut the f—k up, I know where you work and I’ll lay you down, too.”

“At that point he just ran away,” she said.

Powell said Dalebozik’s comments made her fear for her safety.

“I had just seen what he was capable of,” she said. “I thought he could come back.”

She said Dalebozik “seemed very scattered, angry and not all there.”

Powell said she turned Vogiatzakis over, checked his neck for a pulse and didn’t find one. She told another staff member to call 911 while she administered chest compressions until police arrived.

The beating was captured on restaurant security video that was played for court. The video shows Vogiatzakis initiated the physical confrontation but was ultimately overpowered by Dalebozik, who is expected to argue he was acting in self-defence.

When interviewed by police, Powell told investigators Vogiatzakis “had a past of having issues with people and not replying the best.”

When questioned by defence lawyer Steven Brennan about the comment, Powell said Vogiatzakis could be “hotheaded when it came to business.”

“He was very protective of it… just like anyone else would be concerned about his business and he showed it,” she said.

“So, if something threatened his business, he was quick to anger?” Brennan asked Powell.

“I never said quick to anger,” Powell said. “I wouldn’t say he was an unnecessarily angry person… I have never seen him physical with someone. Sometimes he would not respond the best when it came to a heated situation, but that’s about all.”

The trial continues Wednesday.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca