Trial in Kitsilano masseuse killing gets under way
By Keith Fraser, The ProvinceSeptember 9, 2009
Nicole Parisien, 33, was strangled to death in August 2007 in a Kitsilano massage parlour. Her body was found outside of a high-rise building on Chestnut Street.
Photograph by: Handout, The ProvinceThe lawyer for a man accused in the murder of a woman in a Kitsilano massage parlor admitted Tuesday that his client was responsible for choking his victim to death.
Calling it a “tragic case,” Peter Wilson, who represents Andrew William Evans, the man charged with the second-degree murder of Nicole Parisien, questioned whether there was enough intent for murder.
“At the end of the day, you’ll have to decide whether he is guilty of murder, or whether he is guilty of manslaughter,” Wilson told a B.C. Supreme Court jury during his opening statement. “The primary question is the question of intent. Was this an intentional killing?”
Earlier the jury heard from prosecutor Sandra Cunningham that Evans had confessed to police that he paid Parisien, 33, $200 for sex in the apartment suite at 1450 Chestnut St.
Evans, who got Parisien’s phone number from a sex site on Craigslist that he accessed on a computer at a convenience store, became angry when despite efforts by Parisien, he could not sustain an erection, said Cunningham.
He described to police what then happened, she said.
“‘Like I was just f---king angry and I remember I just started choking her,’” Evans told Vancouver police a few days after the August 2007 slaying. “‘I don’t even know whether I choked her first or whether I hit her first. I remember at one point just swinging away and then I remember sitting there and, ‘Holy f--k, she’s dead.’”
Evans, who played rugby at the University of B.C. and volunteered as a counsellor, struck Parisien 10 to 15 times before manually strangling her to death, said the prosecutor
He wrapped Parisien’s naked body in bedding, dragged the body down a rear exit and dumped it in the bushes near the high-rise apartment, she said.
Evans then fled to Calgary where he turned himself into police. He was transferred back to Vancouver and confessed. Evans accompanied police to the apartment suite and re-enacted the slaying. The jury is expected to be shown video of the re-enactment.
A neatly dressed Evans sat quietly in the prisoner’s dock. The accused’s mother and father sat in the front row in the public gallery of the small, packed courtroom. The trial before B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Catherine Wedge continues Wednesday.
By Keith Fraser, The ProvinceSeptember 9, 2009
Nicole Parisien, 33, was strangled to death in August 2007 in a Kitsilano massage parlour. Her body was found outside of a high-rise building on Chestnut Street.
Photograph by: Handout, The ProvinceThe lawyer for a man accused in the murder of a woman in a Kitsilano massage parlor admitted Tuesday that his client was responsible for choking his victim to death.
Calling it a “tragic case,” Peter Wilson, who represents Andrew William Evans, the man charged with the second-degree murder of Nicole Parisien, questioned whether there was enough intent for murder.
“At the end of the day, you’ll have to decide whether he is guilty of murder, or whether he is guilty of manslaughter,” Wilson told a B.C. Supreme Court jury during his opening statement. “The primary question is the question of intent. Was this an intentional killing?”
Earlier the jury heard from prosecutor Sandra Cunningham that Evans had confessed to police that he paid Parisien, 33, $200 for sex in the apartment suite at 1450 Chestnut St.
Evans, who got Parisien’s phone number from a sex site on Craigslist that he accessed on a computer at a convenience store, became angry when despite efforts by Parisien, he could not sustain an erection, said Cunningham.
He described to police what then happened, she said.
“‘Like I was just f---king angry and I remember I just started choking her,’” Evans told Vancouver police a few days after the August 2007 slaying. “‘I don’t even know whether I choked her first or whether I hit her first. I remember at one point just swinging away and then I remember sitting there and, ‘Holy f--k, she’s dead.’”
Evans, who played rugby at the University of B.C. and volunteered as a counsellor, struck Parisien 10 to 15 times before manually strangling her to death, said the prosecutor
He wrapped Parisien’s naked body in bedding, dragged the body down a rear exit and dumped it in the bushes near the high-rise apartment, she said.
Evans then fled to Calgary where he turned himself into police. He was transferred back to Vancouver and confessed. Evans accompanied police to the apartment suite and re-enacted the slaying. The jury is expected to be shown video of the re-enactment.
A neatly dressed Evans sat quietly in the prisoner’s dock. The accused’s mother and father sat in the front row in the public gallery of the small, packed courtroom. The trial before B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Catherine Wedge continues Wednesday.
