Witness admits to making mocking video before fatal bush-party shooting

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A video from a London bush party where a teen was later shot dead, which a 21-year-old posted on social media, shows her own face and then a group of women, one of them with a purse.

Emily Altmann’s defence lawyer, Nathan Gorham, asked several times why Isabella Restrepo made that short clip and why she would send it out to all her friends via Snapchat.

“I remember I thought it was weird that someone was wearing a purse at a bush bash,” Restrepo, 21, said as she finished her testimony Monday at the second-degree murder trial of Altmann, 22, and Carlos Guerra Guerra, 23.

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But Gorham pointed out the young woman with the purse was with Altmann and standing beside her at the bush party just off Pack Road in southwest London on July 30, 2021. It was just hours before Josue Silva, an 18-year-old Western University student, was killed by a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

Gorham suggested Restrepo and her friends were cyberbullying Altmann’s group and wanted to humiliate them. He pointed out the sound of Restrepo’s close friend laughing and saying “Give me a sec. No, I can’t,” suggested they were going to do something on camera to bully the Altmann group.

Restrepo reiterated she didn’t know why she took the video that was filmed after a confrontation with Altmann’s group about a spilled drink.

Altmann and Guerra Guerra have pleaded not guilty in Silva’s death and not guilty to assault with a weapon, namely a blunt object, on Silva’s close friend Logan Marshall, who was Restrepo’s boyfriend at the time.

The jury has heard Restrepo threw a can that might have been open before a confrontation with Altmann’s friends, who claimed Restrepo had poured drinks on them and taken videos. Restrepo knew one among the group, but had only seen Altmann on social media.

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Restrepo testified that after the altercation, Marshall, Silva and their friends stepped in. Altmann and her crew left, but later Restrepo received warnings that armed people had arrived and were looking for them.

She and her friends hid, but, when they hoped the coast was clear, she said Marshall, Silva and their friend Matt Marshall emerged from hiding. She heard what she thought was a firework, then voices laughing and leaving. They found Silva mortally wounded on the ground.

But Gorham has suggested Silva was armed with a machete he had brought to a party and Marshall had a gun when they came out of the woods. Restrepo denied seeing any weapons.

Gorham continued to suggest Restrepo was lying to cover for her friends.

“I am willing to tell the truth and there was no agenda,” she said.

Gorham also suggested the friends weren’t hiding in the bushes, but pointed to a concrete structure pictured in crime scene photos where he said they all could see who was coming into the party and where they could ambush someone. Restrepo said she never saw the structure before.

“You really don’t care about the truth and you don’t care about the people whose lives are at stake at this trial, do you?” Gorham said.

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“I do care,” Restrepo replied.

In re-examination by assistant Crown attorney Jennifer Moser, Restrepo admitted: “I posted (the video) to make fun of the girl wearing the purse at the party.”

She said she had no personal reason not to like Altmann and she didn’t take any other videos.

She said she and her friends have not discussed the events of that night. “I personally have nothing to lie about and my friends and I really don’t want to talk about this.”

The next witness, Josh Dickie, began his testimony before the lunch break. He described being at the party where he knew almost everyone there, except a few. He recalled seeing the altercation between Restrepo and Altmann. Restrepo “was just kind of laughing. She was laughing at somebody getting mad at her.”

He pointed to Altmann as the woman who was yelling at Restrepo. “She was yelling and she was loud,” he said, “She was calling (Restrepo)” names, he said.

Dickie said while he didn’t know Restrepo well, he did have her Snapchat coordinates. He added he had “hundreds” of contacts on the social media app.

The trial continues.

jsims@postmedia.com

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