A doctor’s daughter, a wannabe rapper, a deadly shooting

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Wannabe rapper and accused murderer Carlos Guerra Guerra was in the middle of a strange love triangle.

There were two women in his life, one who pined for him, the other he pined for.

The woman he wanted was Kaiah Edmonds, 21, but she described him as “a friend with benefits” in her testimony at Guerra Guerra’s second-degree murder trial for the 2021 shooting death of 18-year-old Josue Silva.

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The woman who pined for him was Emily Altmann, 22, the girl he met in 2021. She was the daughter of a doctor, drove an expensive BMW sedan and was available to him whenever he wanted. He put her in his cellphone contacts as “Big Beamer Gyal” and she listed him by one of his nicknames, “Barlos.”

And even when she knew Guerra Guerra had killed Silva, a Western University student, after she summoned him to a southwest London bush party, she was willing to lie for him.

Had Altmann’s charges not been stayed mid-trial, the jury would have seen her try to cover for him in two recorded police statements, one made hours after the shooting on July 31, 2021, and on Aug. 5, 2021, after her arrest.

If they had seen the interviews they would have been left to decide whether Altmann was a co-conspirator, or simply a drunk and love-struck teenager with bi-polar disorder who was willing to protect her potential bad-boy paramour.

Superior Court Justice Patricia Moore decided the statements were admissible at trial after a pre-trial application heard in March and July. The defence argued Altmann “was immature, naïve and suffering from a mental illness including depression, anxiety and bi-polar disorder” and was “confused and overwhelmed by the situation.”

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The defence also argued Guerra Guerra was “charismatic, cunning and manipulative” and that he had “diminished her sense of self-worth and cultivated a strong influence over her.”

In her decision released on Oct. 9, Moore described Altmann as “clearly bright” and, despite the mental illness disclosure made late in the second interview, did not appear to be cognitively impaired during the questioning.

Included in her decision was an extensive description of the statements. London police Det. Sgt. Michael Budzyn conducted both interviews with Altmann. He said at the pre-trial motion that in the early hours of the investigation, Altmann’s name came up several times as being part of a heated argument over unwanted photographs and a spilled drink.

But she wasn’t a suspect, only a potential witness, he said. He and another officer went to Altmann’s home and told her someone at the party had died. Altmann seemed surprised and was cooperative. She told them she had gone to the party with a group of young women and gave police their contact information. She agreed to come to London police headquarters and make a statement that could be videotaped.

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As she was walking into the police building at 10:55 a.m., Altmann was seen texting on her phone. Police would later discover she was communicating with Guerra Guerra. A transcript of the text exchange was included in Moore’s decision:

Altmann: “Do not call or text. Me on anything.”

“A kid died at the bush bash.”

“I’m being taking into the station.”

Guerra Guerra: “You just went to a party. You heard a fight break out. And you started running when other people did.”

Altmann: “Stop texting. I’m w them Rn”

The last text was at 10:56 a.m. The interview started at 11:03 a.m.

Altmann and Guerra Guerra sent texts back and forth several times after the shooting, even after he sent a threatening message telling her friends “to keep their mouths shut.” She told him her life was over, she would never go to medical school and that she wanted to “off myself.”

Guerra Guerra’s consistent responses were to delete their texts, get herself a lawyer and don’t say anything.

At a separate pre-trial motion, investigators said they found Altmann’s phone exchanged 4,410 iMessages with Guerra Guerra’s cellphone number between April 28, 2021 and July 31, 2021. An astonishing 62,000 messages between her phone and Guerra Guerra’s number were stored on Altmann’s iCloud of messages accessed through her laptop.

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At the first police interview, Altmann stuck with the plan. She admitted regretfully to the argument over the spilled drink, but maintained that she left the party before the shooting to drop off her friends.

She said she sent a text to another group of friends to say she was scared that 10 males were going to jump her and sent one of them a text of her location.

Initially, Budzyn believed her. But during a break in the interview, Budzyn was informed of a video taken near the scene that made him believe Altmann hadn’t told him everything she knew. He formed the grounds to seize her cellphone.

Altmann continued to maintain her story and said she didn’t know who did it. She said she was too scared to say anything else. She wasn’t happy about the police seizing her phone, and told Budzyn there might be some “questionable things” on it like an image of her holding what she thought was a BB gun. She told him that “they” had sent her texts to make sure she and her friends didn’t say anything or “they’re gone.”

She told Budzyn she would name names if the cameras were turned off and she could be anonymous. Budzyn told her everything was on the record. He was going to lock up her phone and assured her that unless she told the people she called “to mess those guys up” or “shoot somebody,” she wasn’t in trouble.

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That’s when the interview took a dramatic turn. “I might have said mess them up,” Altmann told him, but she didn’t know if they had weapons or even if they were going to fight.

Budzyn interrupted Altmann, warning her that she may be admitting to a crime. After a break, Altmann said she didn’t think she told them to mess someone up. She stuck to her story and wouldn’t give up any names. Altmann left the police station with her father.

On Aug. 2, 2021, two days into the investigation of Silva’s death, Budzyn said Altmann became a suspect because “she had been involved in a disturbance, was heard making threats, had arranged for someone to come to the party that was known to have a gun, led them into to the party and was present for the shooting.”

She was arrested on Aug. 5, 2021, at her house. Before leaving in handcuffs, she packed some warm clothes for the chilly cell block and her medication for bi-polar disorder.

Budzyn conducted the second five-hour interview that afternoon. Altmann was a grab bag of emotions. She sobbed and told him she was cold. She said she was being “royally screwed” and didn’t understand how she had gotten into this predicament.

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She told Budzyn she was very drunk on the night of the party and “everything is a blur.” The officer showed her some of the electronic evidence and text messages. She told the officer she was standing there when Silva was shot, but she didn’t see anything and didn’t know anyone had weapons.

She also laughed at times and joked when the officer was having trouble with the video that she had nothing better to do.

She eventually named Guerra Guerra, who had rushed to the party with Schaap, Candace Jamieson and Edmonds after Altmann contacted him saying she was going to be “jumped” by 10 young men.

Guerra Guerra, she told the officer, was “a really good friend” who made rap music and never gave her the impression that he was dangerous, but actually made her feel safe. She said she didn’t think he was “capable of doing anything like this,” let alone shoot anyone.

Then she disclosed that over the past two months, at almost any party she attended, she would call Guerra Guerra and make an excuse for him to meet her. She had romantic feelings for him and she thought the story about the 10 guys about to jump her was a good excuse to call him.

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“She told him that she was scared when they were being chased but she didn’t leave right away because she wanted to spend time with Guerra Guerra,” Moore wrote in her decision.

Her mental health diagnosis didn’t come up until later in the interview. She told Budzyn that she was bi-polar and that made her tolerance for alcohol very low. She usually took her medication but sometimes, she said, when she missed her dosage, she would drink on purpose and ended up “getting crazy.”

Altmann made her first court appearance later that day by video link, charged with second-degree murder and assault with a weapon.

She had made two key errors. For one, while she followed Guerra Guerra’s instructions to delete all their texts from her cellphone, she neglected to do the same with her iCloud. When the police seized her MacBook, they discovered that all of her texts had been saved, and ended up being a treasure trove of digital evidence.

Her second mistake was her belief she had a chance with the wannabe rapper with a gun fetish who was described by her lawyers at the pre-trial motion as having “psychopathic tendencies including grandiosity, superficiality, lack of empathy, lack of remorse and pathological lying.”

His TikTok videos are still online under his stage name, LBK Silver. Both Guerra Guerra and Schaap are prominent in the clips. Altmann can be seen in one as part of a group dancing.

And in another, Guerra Guerra raps while sitting in the driver’s seat of a luxury car. When the camera pans out, it appears to be a BMW similar to Altmann’s – four-door and silver grey.

jsims@postmedia.com

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