The lawyer for Lucy Li – a young woman accused in a Stoney Creek double shooting – presented a new account of events in court on Tuesday.
The details come on the fourth day of testimony from a key witness, who survived being shot in the heart.
Li and Oliver Karafa are accused of killing 39-year-old Tyler Pratt, and shooting his girlfriend Jordyn Romano.
It was Romano’s fourth and final day of testimony, and the defence grilled her, pointing out what he called “credibility problems.”
Both the crown and the defence can agree it was the night of Feb. 28, 2021 when Pratt was shot six times and died, and his pregnant girlfriend, Romano, was shot in the heart.
READ MORE: Survivor of Stoney Creek murder takes stand on third day of Karafa, Li trial
She survived, but her pregnancy did not.
But, in Romano’s second day of cross examination on Tuesday, the defence lawyer for Li said the two young women differ greatly on their accounts of the tragic night.
Romano testified last week that she was sitting in her car when Karafa pointed the gun at her and pulled the trigger.
She maintains that Li was standing outside of the car, in front of the driver’s side.
Lawyer Liam O’Connor told the court that Li says she was “half a football field away” when the shooting took place.
He said Karafa left the scene in a white Audi and returned a few minutes later to pick up Li.
Surveillance video shown at the trial shows a car leaving the property from across the street.
O’Connor also says Li had only met with the couple a handful of times, and that she wasn’t involved in any business dealings.
READ MORE: Witness who was shot by alleged gunman takes the stand in Karafa, Li murder trial
Pratt and Romano had invested nearly half a million dollars in a business scheme with Karafa and a mutual friend – in which they sold personal protective equipment to hospitals in Europe during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Li became involved when the group decided to create an allegedly fraudulent life insurance policy through her mother’s business, to bring P.P.E. profits from Europe to Canada tax-free.
O’Connor argued Li got cold feet, so the policy never went through, saying Li “couldn’t stand being around criminals.”
The defence called into question Romano’s morality – asking her repeatedly if she agrees her actions were “disgusting” and “greedy”, if she sees how she was “part of the problem,” both when it came to “gouging” hospitals as he described it, and in aiding Pratt to deal cocaine.
“You let a fairly big drug dealer fly under the radar. That makes you part of the problem, don’t you see that?” O’Connor said, referring to the drug epidemic in Vancouver.
Romano denied his characterization, but said she knows she hasn’t always done the right thing.
Li and Karafa are on trial for first-degree murder and attempted murder in the double shooting of Pratt and Romano. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The trial resumes Wednesday, when we are expecting to hear from detectives.