Fatal stabbing during fight between friends wasn't a crime, judge rules
Client: Justin Riley Richardson
Charge: Manslaughter
Defence: Richardson wasn’t acting in self-defence, there was an air of reality to claim he feared for his life
Result: Acquitted
Finding an air of reality to his self-defence claims, a Calgary judge on Thursday acquitted a city man of manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of his friend during a fight over cigarettes.
Justice Craig Jones found the prosecution hadn’t proven Justin Riley Richardson wasn’t acting in self-defence when he fatally stabbed Antonio Wallace-Murillo.
The Court of King’s Bench judge rejected Crown prosecutor Samina Dhalla’s argument Richardson brought a knife to a fist fight, effectively using excessive force.
Jones noted Richardson only resorted to pulling a knife after Wallace-Murillo knocked him to the floor when an argument over the accused refusing to pick up a pack of smokes for the deceased escalated into a physical confrontation.
“Mr. Richardson found himself engaged in a hostile conflict with a larger man,” Jones said.
“I do not view Mr. Richardson’s response as disproportionate (to the threat posed by the deceased).”
He agreed with defence lawyer Alain Hepner that there was an air of reality to his client’s claim he feared for his life, putting the onus on the Crown to disprove the defence.
Dhalla also suggested that Richardson could have attempted to de-escalate the situation by talking Wallace-Murillo down after the dispute became physical, or by extricating himself from the situation.
But Jones said while those options may have resulted in Wallace-Murillo’s life being spared, they may also have failed miserably.
The argument between the two men was triggered by Richardson’s refusal to pick up cigarettes for the deceased while he was away from the downtown apartment they were partying at to make a drug transaction.
The two men exchanged insults with Richardson calling Wallace-Murillo a goof.
“Perhaps he could have apologized and tried to get the deceased to stand down,” Jones said, of one of the options Dhalla suggested.
“If Mr. Richardson had pursued either of those alternatives he may have been the one stabbed that night.”
Richardson, 20, was charged with manslaughter in connection with the Aug. 31, 2021, death of Wallace-Murillo.
Richardson had been crashing at the apartment of a mutual friend and Wallace-Murillo had stayed there occasionally as well.
After Wallace-Murillo knocked Richardson to the floor the accused pulled out a switchblade from his pocket and stabbed the deceased once in the leg.
The wound severed the victim’s femoral artery and he quickly bled to death.
In his testimony, Richardson said as he was trying to stand back up he feared Wallace-Murillo, who was known to keep a knife in the satchel he was wearing, was going to stab him.
He said he closed his eyes and blindly lashed out in an effort to get him to back off.
Jones dismissed the evidence of eyewitness Lucas North Peigan Dickson, who suggested Richardson “launched” himself at the victim.
Source: The Calgary Herald