Witness holds firm under defence questioning at bush-party murder trial

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As hard as he tried, Emily Altmann’s defence lawyer couldn’t get Rachel Johnson to admit she was in a Snapchat video on her best friend’s phone.

That’s because, she said repeatedly, it wasn’t her.

The video in question was found on the cellphone of Altmann’s best friend, Isabella Restrepo, and showed mere seconds of Restrepo before the camera was turned toward a woman who had a purse and was standing in a group with his client.

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Another woman with blonde hair wearing a white shirt is heard laughing and saying: “Wait a sec. No, I can’t.”

Gorham has argued that the video is evidence of cyberbullying, something he said his client has endured. And he has said Johnson was part of it and that the blonde woman was her.

Not so, Johnson insisted in testimony on Wednesday at the second-degree murder trial of Altmann and co-accused Carlos Guerra Guerra, charged with the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Josue Silva at a bush party that turned violent.

Earlier in her testimony, Johnson recalled wearing a black crew-neck shirt bearing the name Nirvana, the 1990s band, on the front. She remembered because it was a T-shirt worn over a long-sleeve black shirt and that she thought later she should have taken it off to help staunch Silva’s bleeding after they found him dying of a gunshot wound.

Undeterred, Gorham came back with the same conclusion Wednesday morning that it was Johnson in the video and she was lying. He asked Johnson if she had thought about her answer.

Johnson didn’t bend. The woman in the video isn’t her. “I know what I was wearing that night and that does not match what I have seen in the video so I know that girl in the video is not me.”

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Altmann, 22, and Guerra Guerra, 23, have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Silva’s death and not guilty to assault with a weapon, namely a blunt object, on Logan Marshall, Silva’s best friend.

The defence cross-examinations of Crown witnesses have taken on the same aggressive rapid-fire tone since it began more than a week ago. With each witness, the defence’s argument is coming more in focus: that Altmann is a victim, that Silva and his friends were the aggressors and that the friends at the party have concocted an alibi for themselves.

That’s not what the Crown says. The witnesses have described a happy gathering of young people on July 23, 2021, that was interrupted by a testy exchange between Altmann and her friends and Restrepo, who had thrown an open beverage can in the direction, Johnson said, of their friend group.

One of Altmann’s friends confronted Restrepo, accusing her of hitting her boyfriend. She and Altmann yelled at Restrepo until Marshall, her boyfriend at the time, Silva and their friends stepped in.

Altmann’s group left the party, but the jury has seen video of a white SUV rolling up to a corner where Altmann and her friends were waiting. Two men dressed all in black and wearing balaclavas got out. One Crown witness testified he saw one with “a sword” on his waistband who said: “Where are they?”

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Marshall, Silva, Restrepo, Johnson and others hid in the bushes after there were warnings of people looking for them. Silva was shot after emerging from his hiding place.

Gorham hammered at Johnson about her assertion that she saw Restrepo toss the can and thought it was “a joke” that she had seen happen at other bush parties. She testified she didn’t see where it landed.

He reminded Johnson the party occurred during COVID-19 guidelines and that there was information everywhere to be responsible because people were dying and stuck in isolation. And young people were asked to do their part to help.

“The message is let’s all be responsible citizens. You are a part of getting this pandemic under control so the hospitals don’t get overwhelmed, so the cases stop happening . . . so all of us can get our rights back,” Gorham said.

“You would have this jury believe that picking up a drink in the middle of a pandemic and throwing it over a group of people and spraying them with an unknown person’s germs is just no big deal. Maybe someone would blow it out of proportion but it’s just a funny joke. How could you possibly think that?”

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Johnson said she couldn’t be sure what the restrictions were at the time but “my mind at that party when Isa threw the drink was, yes, I thought it was an innocent joke.”

Gorham said Johnson must accept “that it’s a very rude and insulting and indeed an outrageous and uncivil thing to throw an open drink from some unknown stranger over 50 people’s heads during the middle of a pandemic when their loved ones might be immunocompromised.”

He added it was “disgusting.”

Said Johnson: “I admit that it is not a funny joke and people do have a right be offended, however, when Restrepo threw the can it was not meant to be a malicious and disgusting act.”

She said Altmann and her friends “got very angry, very quickly.”

Gorham pressed Johnson about why police weren’t called when everyone was hiding and why it took almost 10 minutes for someone to call 911 once they heard the gunshot and found Silva shot in the abdomen.

He suggested it was because Johnson knew her friends had weapons and everyone was worried they would get in trouble. “That is not correct,” she said.

The trial continues.

jsims@postmedia.com

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