Defence makes stunning admission at bush party homicide trial

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Logan Marshall sent one last text message to his close friend.

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It was in the early morning of July 31, 2021. Marshall was being treated for a concussion after he said he was suddenly jumped after hiding in fear with his friends and trying to find a safe route out of the southwest London bush party.

He knew at that point that Silva had been injured, too, but nothing more.

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“I’m sorry,” were the words he sent him.

“I believe that after I found out he was injured, I guess, obviously, I had to run for my life, but part of me feels guilty for running away and not being there for him,” he said, his voice breaking during his testimony Monday at the Superior Court jury trial of Carlos Guerra Guerra.

Silva died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen during the same sequence of violence where Marshall, 22, was hurt, making Marshall arguably one of the most important witnesses for the Crown.

But Marshall was candid in his testimony about what he saw of the shooting of one of his best friends. In short, he saw nothing because he was desperately getting away from an attacker who had pummeled him with punches to his face and hit him on the back of the head with something that felt like metal.

Guerra Guerra, 23, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting death of Silva, 18, and not guilty to assault with a weapon, namely a blunt object, of Marshall at a mid-summer bush party full of teens more than three years ago.

The trial, now beginning its seventh week, has seen a fair share of unexpected twists. Last week, the jury was told that Emily Altmann, 22, who had been a co-accused with Guerra Guerra, had been excused from the trial, along with her legal team. Superior Court Justice Patricia Moore told the jury it was not to speculate and that the trial would continue with Guerra Guerra as the sole defendant.

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The jury also knows that a third person charged in the case, Dylan Schaap, 23, has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

On Monday, the court day started with another startling admission, this time from Guerra Guerra’s defence lawyer, Ricardo Golec.

“It is admitted that Carlos Guerra discharged the firearm that shot and led to the death of Josue Silva on July 31, 2021, and that firearm was brought to the scene by Mr. Guerra Guerra’s group,” he told the jury.

Assistant Crown attorney Jennifer Moser then called Marshall, a Western University student who has spent the last two summers fighting wildfires in northern Manitoba, to testify. He told the jury about the tight-knit group of friends who hung around together in Lambeth, many of whom he referred to as “brothers.”

He had to pause to compose himself when asked about Silva, who he met in his Grade 9 science class at Saunders secondary school. “He was my best friend,” Marshall said.

On July 30, 2021, Marshall said he and his buddies, including Silva, met at Blake Hayward’s house and were invited to the bush party on Pack Road. After about an hour at Hayward’s, where Marshall said he drank a couple of light beers, they made their way to the party and were directed to head down a long, dark path into the woods to a clearing.

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He was asked several times if he took a weapon or if any of his friends had weapons. His response was an emphatic “no.”

A bonfire was roaring and the mood was fun, he said. He recognized most of the people at the bash and was talking to some people who had attended St. Thomas Aquinas secondary school, when friend Ryan Burke told him that “some guy is yelling at him that he spilled a drink on his girlfriend.”

Marshall said he saw that his then-girlfriend, Isabella Restrepo, “was being yelled at by a girl,” so Marshall went over to stand up for her and Burke.

He said the conversation was heated with some coarse language and he was joined by Silva and a couple of other friends. He told the woman to leave. He said he didn’t know who she was or who her boyfriend was. The woman was yelling “we didn’t know who she knows” and “bringing up her brother-in-law.”

The jury has heard about the spilled drink argument that involved Altmann, and also Lina Latif, who was carried out of the party by her boyfriend.

Marshall said the woman he confronted was pulled away by her boyfriend. The interaction lasted for about one minute. He was only focused on them.

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After the couple left, the tensions died down and the party went back to what it had been. About 45 minutes later, Marshall said he received a call and text from another friend who “seemed very worried and scared.”

There were people coming into the party that were not familiar at all and “had a big machete and weapons on them.”

Marshall said at first he didn’t want to believe it, because “we’re in Lambeth, we’re at a high school party,” but he decided to quickly round up the friends near him – Silva, Restrepo, Matt Swan and Rachel Johnson – and cut into the woods and look for a safe route out to Col. Talbot Road.

“We were terrified and wanted to stay away from that,” he said.

He called Hayward, who was by the bonfire, to gather their other friends and meet outside the bush. But Hayward told him he didn’t see anything going on, so Marshall said he and his group cut back toward the path to be in the neighbourhood.

While in the woods, they heard a male voice say: “Who’s back there?” The women held back at that point, while the three men led the way back to the path.

Swan walked out first, then Marshall.

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“As we got out there, the danger became more intimate. I can’t recall if there were any words said, but I recall people walking towards me and at that point I had a terrible feeling. I put my head down and kind of walk toward the entrance with my head down hoping I wasn’t seen.”

He said he could see a group of about eight people and “a dark figure” in a jacket and another person with “hockey hair” and scruffy facial hair.

Within seconds, Marshall said he was grabbed and punched. He went to the ground “very quickly” and wasn’t able to punch back. He was curled up on the ground with his hands up to protect his head.

Then, “I was hit in the back of the head with something that sounded like metal,” Marshall said.

He was able to get up and get away. He ran into the woods.

“Just after I began to run, I heard laughing,” he said. “My first thought was to run as fast as I could deep into the forest, basically run for my life.”

Marshall said he ran to a cornfield and was “very out of it.” He contacted friends on his phone who used a Snapchat map feature to guide him out to them.

He said he kept vomiting, and would later find out in hospital that he had a concussion. While he waited at the hospital, he received word that Silva was injured and “wasn’t okay.”

It was after he spoke to police and once he was released from the hospital a couple hours later that he found out Silva was dead.

He told Moser he didn’t have injuries to his hands when he spoke to police at the hospital. But the next day, when they spoke to him again, he did have injuries.

“After I found out, I punched a sign with my hands a few times,” he said.

The trial continues Monday afternoon.

jsims@postmedia.com

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