A heated argument that turned into a pair of altercations led to the death of a Tsawwassen man nearly three years ago outside the Rose and Crown Pub, a B.C. Supreme Court trial heard this week.
Franco Douglas Sarra, a graduate of South Delta Secondary now living in Burnaby, is facing a manslaughter charge in connection with the death of 53-year-old Russ Armfelt. Armfelt was located unconscious early in the morning of Dec. 11, 2016 outside the rear of the 56th Street pub.
The trial opened before Justice Trevor Armstrong in New Westminster on Monday morning, the gallery packed with friends and family of Armfelt on one side and friends and family of Sarra on the other.
Crown prosecutors David Simpkin and Stephanie Sfikas told the court they would call nine civilian witnesses made up of past and present employees of the pub as well as customers on the night of the incident.
Sfikas said the witnesses would testify to the atmosphere of the pub, the demeanor of both Armfelt and Sarra as well what some observed during the altercations outside.
“The Crown anticipates that the evidence you are about to hear will show that Mr. Sarra and Mr. Armfelt engaged in a consensual fist fight outside of the Rose and Crown Pub,” she said. “The evidence will show that Mr. Sarra delivered multiple punches to Mr. Armfelt in the area of the face and head. The Crown’s theory is that Mr. Armfelt’s consent to the overall fight was vitiated due to the foreseeable risk of serious hurt or bodily harm and Mr. Sarra intended to cause bodily harm to Mr. Armfelt.”
Pub co-owner Shelley Metrow testified to the atmosphere inside the pub and confirmed that Armfelt was a patron that night.
Metrow said she had known Armfelt for more than 20 years and that she interacted with him on a few occasions during the evening.
Erin Cochrane, a former busser, also gave evidence about the atmosphere in the pub, testifying that she knew Sarra from school and identified him through CCTV footage, which Crown entered into evidence.
D’Arcy Maher, who was employed at the time as a host/doorman, testified it was a busy night, but nothing out of the ordinary was going on. He said it was between 12:30 and 1 a.m. when he was alerted by another staff member of something going on outside the pub.
He testified that he went outside where he saw a circle of five guys arguing.
He said he recognized two individuals, Aman Gill and Tony Orlitzky, both customers of the pub, and who will also be called as witnesses.
Maher said he later learned the third individual was Armfelt and the fourth he identified as the defendant. He told the court he didn’t know the fifth person.
Maher said as he tried to intervene, Gill and Orlitzky broke off from the group.
“The hats and the coats started coming off and they paired off from the other three,” said Maher. “I go and get between them and tell them they should not be having a fight. I put my hands on both of them and said this is not going to happen.”
Simpkin then asked Maher after he broke up that fight what was the first thing he heard. Maher said it was a loud thumping sound.
“Something got hit – hard,” said Maher. “It was behind me. I turned around to see what the sound was. I observed Russell falling back and that he was going to get hit again. I heard the first hit, but I didn’t see it.”
He said he then went to intervene.
“I go running over and arriving thinking I’m going to put the defendant in a full nelson and when I get there he is already swinging to hit Russell again. I miss the full nelson and I got one arm and spun him around, which turned us face-to-face,” he recalled. “Russ was falling backwards. I believe he was out. He was not defending himself, he wasn’t putting his hands back to protect his fall. He wasn’t putting his hands up to protect him from getting hit again. He was unconscious, knocked out.”
During cross-examination of all three witnesses, defence attorney Jeff Campbell tried to discredit them by showing the court their versions of events were unclear.
He challenged the timelines and presented two police statements that Maher made in the hours after the incident he contended were not consistent with his testimony.
The trial is scheduled for two weeks.
