Lawyers presented their closing arguments on Wednesday in the trial of a man accused of murdering a teenager from Behchokǫ, N.W.T. Zakk Lafferty, aged 24 at the time of being charged, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the August 2023 death of 17-year-old Deijean Drybones.
The ongoing jury trial, now in its second week, has featured testimony from several Crown witnesses, including four youths present on the night of Drybones’s death, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy, and multiple RCMP officers involved in the case. Crown prosecutor Brendan Green informed the court that while no homicide is simple, the circumstances of this case are straightforward. Green alleged that Lafferty got into a confrontation with a witness and had his phone taken before subsequently stabbing Drybones over a phone-related dispute.
Green emphasized Drybones’s statement to first responders, in which he identified Lafferty as his assailant. Green asserted that Drybones, being stabbed in the chest, was in a position to recognize his attacker, as he had spent most of the evening with Lafferty.
In her closing remarks, Lafferty’s lawyer, Kimberly Arial, addressed the jury, highlighting a video recording of Lafferty’s statement to the RCMP while in custody. Arial contested the prosecution’s claim of inconsistencies in Lafferty’s statement and suggested that Lafferty’s intoxication on the night of the incident may have impacted his statement.
Arial urged the jury not to rely on Drybones’s pre-death statement, noting the inability to cross-examine him and his intoxication level. She also pointed out the absence of any weapon or DNA evidence linking Lafferty to the crime scene.
RCMP Cpl. Greg Morrow, the lead investigator, testified that Lafferty was arrested following an audio recording of Drybones explicitly accusing Lafferty of stabbing him. Morrow detailed the police search of the house where the incident occurred, mentioning the collection of blood swabs that matched Drybones’s DNA and the discovery of Lafferty’s cellphone at the scene. Additionally, DNA samples from Lafferty did not match those of Drybones.
Despite extensive searches of both the crime scene and Lafferty’s residence, the murder weapon was never recovered, and no incriminating evidence was found at Lafferty’s home. The jury is expected to receive instructions from Justice David Gates on Thursday.