Key witness holds firm at bush party homicide trial: ‘I know what I saw’

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Despite the repeated attacks on her story, Jessica Falardeau maintained: “I know what I saw.”

But as the defence lawyer for one of two people accused in the shooting death of a Western University student said, her account of what happened at a southwest London bush party on July 31, 2021, differs from other eye-witness testimony the jury has already heard.

Nathan Gorham, who is representing Emily Altmann, has pointed out repeatedly during the sometimes testy exchanges between himself and Falardeau that she’s the only person who has testified to hearing Altmann repeatedly yell out “I’m going to shoot you” to a woman who’d thrown a canned drink at Altmann’s group of friends.

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And Falardeau is the first witness to testify she saw one of the two masked men summoned by Altmann to help settle a score pull a gun out of his right pocket and shoot the young man he was pummeling on the ground during a fight.

Altmann, 22, and Carlos Guerra Guerra, 23, have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting death of Josue Silva, 18, a Western University student who died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

They have also pleaded not guilty to assault with a weapon, namely a blunt object, of Logan Marshall, Silva’s close friend.

What is becoming evident in the sixth week of the trial is that there were a lot of whispers, accusations and gossip being thrown around teenagers’ chat groups in the hours and days after Silva’s death.

Falardeau, 19, who competed in an international karate championship in Portugal earlier this month, was just 15 when she decided to tag along with her sister, Jamie, and her sister’s friends to the bush bash on Pack Road near Grand Oak Cross.

Gorham has challenged Falardeau’s memory of the events on several fronts and said she’s shifted the blame to Altmann to deflect responsibility for the shooting from her and her sister, which had been the talk on social media.

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He suggested Falardeau could be charged if she’s lying.

“It is the truth, so I know I’m safe,” she said.

Her testimony is that she, her sister and Altmann met a up with the two masked men – which the jury has heard were Guerra Guerra and Dylan Schaap – along with another woman, then went into the woods looking for the people Altmann had a beef with.

Falardeau said she broke away from them to talk to friends and started leaving with her sister when a group of young people came over a hill and one was identified as a person responsible for insulting Altmann.

She said the two masked men attacked him, and a friend of the man being attacked jumped in to help him. Falardeau’s memory was that the passenger in the Dodge Journey, who was heavier-set and had a beard, straddled the man who jumped in to help and shot him.

Part of the defence argument stems from Falardeau’s insistence that she and the rest of the people at the party with Altmann – a woman she hadn’t met until that night – were threatened in the vehicle by Altmann after leaving the party the first time following the thrown-drink insult.

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Falardeau has testified Altmann was angry and made a phone call to someone about coming to help her. After she got off the phone, she told the four other women in the vehicle that “they are bringing a gun.”

Falardeau said in her police statement, as was pointed out by Gorham, that she said Altmann had shown them a text message that had all of their addresses in it that had either been sent or received. She testified she didn’t want to go back into the bush party, but Altmann had insisted.

Two of the women stayed in the vehicle, but Falardeau said that while she didn’t want to go, she did because she didn’t want her sister to go back in the party with Altmann and the people coming to meet them.

Gorham produced copies of text messages between Altmann and Guerra Guerra, who she summoned to help her, and there were no threatening texts sent before the shooting, nor anything with their addresses attached.

Gorham said that was a lie, but Falardeau said she could remember the message.

However, even though she knew there might be a gun, “my 15-year-old self didn’t believe they had a gun,” Falardeau said, putting it down to an idle threat.

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Gorham zeroed in on the text messages and showed Falardeau that the threats didn’t start until after the shooting when Altmann was driving them, with Guerra Guerra warning Altmann that “if anyone in ur (sic) group snitched, you know what’s gonna happen to them.”

Altmann replied that she was deleting their entire phone exchange.

Gorham is playing Falardeau’s videotaped police statement to the jury, which shows the then-15-year-old sitting in the rear seat of a London police cruiser with her father and answering questions from two officers.

Gorham has been pointing out large swaths of the story that weren’t included in her initial account of the events that night. Falardeau said she adds more information as the police ask her more questions.

“I was scared. I was nervous. It was my first time talking to a cop,” she said.

The trial continues Wednesday afternoon.

jsims@postmedia.com

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