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The trial in the death of a teenager in Behchokǫ̀ entered its fifth day of witness testimony Friday.
Zakk Lafferty has pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Deijean Drybones in Behchokǫ̀ in August 2023.
Lafferty was 24 at the time he was charged.
The trial started Monday in Yellowknife and is expected to take at least 10 days.
On Wednesday, the Crown called upon forensic pathologist Cecilia Wu to testify. She appeared in front of the court via a video call from her office in Edmonton. Wu performed the autopsy on Drybones five days after his death and was granted the title of an expert witness by the judge.
During questioning from the Crown, Wu said that Drybones died of a stab wound to his upper right chest, with two injuries to the vena cava veins in his heart. Vena cava veins are two large veins that deliver blood to the heart, according to the London Health Sciences Centre.
These two injuries were due to movement, Wu said, but she indicated it could have been slight movement from Drybones, the blade, or even from the heart beating.
Unclear what blade was used
It was unclear what type of blade created the stab wound, Wu said. She was unable to determine if it was single-edged, like a kitchen knife, or double-bladed, like a dagger.
During the autopsy, Drybones’s blood alcohol level was tested. Wu said that his alcohol levels were “above the legal limit” and that he had been intoxicated before his death, but she indicated that this did not contribute to his death.
With an injury as severe as the one Drybones sustained, Wu said that his chance of survival in general had been very low.
“You would have to head into the operating ward very quickly in order to sew up those injuries,” she said.
In cross-examination, Lafferty’s lawyer, Kimberely Arial, asked Wu to emphasize that statement. Wu said that the likelihood of Dyrbones surviving even at the hospital was low and that it would have been “very unlikely” to survive for an hour without medical intervention.
Lafferty said he went straight home after an attack
On day four of the trial, the Crown presented the court with a video that lasted over two hours. In it, RCMP Const. Jeff Linnen, an officer who helped investigate the death of Drybones, spoke with Lafferty while he was in police custody.
Lafferty appeared in the video with a large bandage covering his right eye, which had been stitched up, and said he also had a sore neck. When asked where he got the injuries, Lafferty responded that he had been beaten up the night before.
Lafferty said he had gone in search of a friend and was carrying a blue label bottle of Smirnoff with him. His friend was not at the house, but a group of three people, including Drybones, was there. They invited Lafferty inside, where Lafferty said they drank and watched music videos on YouTube.
In the video, Lafferty told Linnen that when he eventually got up to leave, the group followed him outside and beat him up. He said they took his blue label bottle of Smirnoff and his phone.
Investigator challenges Lafferty in video
Afterwards, Lafferty said he ran home and didn’t leave the house again that night.
In the video, Linnen pushed back on Lafferty’s description of the night and played him a recording of a statement from a witness who’d had multiple phone calls with Drybones that night, including one where the witness said she heard someone speaking to Drybones.
When Linnen asked about the recording, Lafferty repeated that after he was attacked, he went straight home and didn’t leave his house for the rest of the evening.
During questioning, Crown prosecutor Brendan Green asked Linnen if he had been involved in taking statements from the four witnesses who were at the house with Drybones and Lafferty that evening. Linnen said he had.
Blue label liquor bottle found outside
During cross-examination Linnen said that the police searched the house where the group had been partying and found cell phones on the couch and a blue label Smirnoff bottle outside, which was nearly empty.
Arial asked Linnen if police had been able to obtain a search warrant for Lafferty’s bedroom, and if they had, she asked what the police found.
Linnen said the police searched Lafferty’s room but didn’t find anything relevant to the investigation in his home.
In court Friday, the last witness who was present in the house the evening Drybones died took to the witness box. His testimony was interrupted by proceedings closed to the public and without the jury present.
The trial continues Tuesday with the last of the Crown’s witness testimony and the start of the defense witness testimony.
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