Bush party homicide: Witness recalls threatening post-gunshot text message

Article content

The few seconds of frantic screams and shouts from a short cellphone video recorded inside Emily Altmann’s car echoed through the courtroom.

It was filmed moments after Western University student Josue Silva, 18, was mortally wounded at a southwest London bush party on July 31, 2021. It’s not clear who took the video, but Maya Pluchowski, 21, the witness testifying Thursday, recognized the brief shot of her face.

Article content

One of the voices in the car with her can be heard yelling: “He shot him in the (expletive) stomach.”

“That’s Emily,” Pluchowski said under questions from assistant Crown attorney Jennifer Moser.

Pluchowski, in her second day of testifying at the trial of Altmann, 22, and Carlos Guerra Guerra, 23, described what happened in the moments before and after the shooting and how she and her friends were warned to keep quiet.

She told the jury that Altmann warned them to say not to tell police why Altmann had returned to the party after an argument over an unwanted photo and a spilled drink with Isabella Restrepo.

And Altmann read them a text message in the car after the shooting that said: “Tell your friends to keep their mouths shut or else something will happen to them too.”

Altmann and Guerra Guerra have each pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder of Silva and assault with a weapon, namely a blunt object, on Logan Marshall at the mid-summer party in an isolated bush that turned violent.

Pluchowski spent her first day testifying describing the argument between Altmann and Restrepo after an unwanted photo was snapped and, a few minutes later, a drink was thrown in the direction of Altmann and Jamie Falardeau, two of the people Pluchowski came with to the party.

Article content

Article content

She also told the jury about the decision for her group to leave and how they were walked out. The argument continues on the walk with Restrepo saying “once I find out who you are I’m going to (expletive) kill you,” and Altmann fuming that she was going to call her larger friend named Candice to come and beat Restrepo up.

Pluchowski said Altmann was fuming and was on the phone when they were in the car. “She was saying she was still going to arrange something and someone was still going to finish what had happened earlier.”

Pluchowski was uncomfortable but said nothing. “I just wanted to leave all together,” she said.

They drove around for about 10 minutes making circles around the neighbourhood with Altmann at the wheel and still making phone calls.

Pluchowski hadn’t been drinking but she believed Altmann was intoxicated. “The overreaction to the situation led me to believe that alcohol was influencing that,” she said.

They returned to the same parking spot on Grand Oak Cross. “I was under the impression we were waiting for this Candice girl to come,” she said.

Pluchowski said Altmann’s anger had subsided “when she got confirmation of something.” Altmann said she was going back to the party, while Jamie Falardeau and her sister said they were going as well “ to watch the fight.”

Article content

Pluchowski and her friend McKenna Bain stayed in the car because they “didn’t want to be involved” and they wanted to go home. As they sat there scrolling through their phones, they heard what they thought was a firework.

Altmann and the Falardeaus were gone for five to 10 minutes and returned screaming “oh my God,” over and over, and Altmann saying, “he shot him in the stomach,” and that she believed “Logan” had been shot.

Altmann, Pluchowski said, was “very frantic, in shock.” She read them the text she received about keeping their mouths shut. Before dropping them off at Falardeau’s house, she was “trying to ensure we were all on the same page” and that they “not mention that any calls were made after we left the party and not mention that a fight was expected to happen.”

Then she left. “She was going to meet up with some guy, but I don’t know who it was,” Pluchowski said.

Pluchowski hadn’t met Altmann until that night. She said she surmised what had happened and “I believed dangerous people would potentially come harm me as well if I cooperated with the police and I explained who I thought had done it or who had caused the death.”

Article content

None of them called 911. Pluchowski said she want to tell the truth but “I was still scared to tell the entire truth.”

The police came to her door on Aug. 1, 2021, the day after Silva died. She spoke to them on her patio with her parents present.

She said she followed Altmann’s instructions and omitted telling them about the arranging of the fight. She said she thought the people involved might be associated with a gang and “could come hurt me or my family. . . . I was worried they could potentially kill me.”

As soon as the officers left, Pluchowski said she had a change of heart. She said she broke down and told her parents everything. By chance, the officers returned 10 minutes after her first statement to get her phone number.

She then gave a second, more complete statement.

Pluchowski continues her testimony Thursday afternoon.

jsims@postmedia.com

Article content