The jury in the second degree murder trial of Mohamed Daud Omar heard closing arguments from the Crown on Wednesday (June 19) morning in Victoria. Omar called no witnesses and gave no argument in his defence.
Omar is representing himself in a trial in which he stands accused of murder for the 2022 stabbing death of John Dickinson outside the Lucky Bar in downtown Victoria. Throughout the trial he cross-examined witnesses minimally, and only submitted one piece of evidence - a single photograph.
This photograph was provided to the jury, but what it depicts is not clear from testimony and submissions such as this one are not publicly available at this time.
Justice Anthony Saunders said he plans to give his instructions to the jury on Thursday (June 20) morning, at which point the members will be sequestered until ready to deliver a verdict.
In his closing arguments to the Jury, Crown prosecutor Tim Stokes deconstructed the past two-and-a-half weeks of testimony, dividing it into several categories. These included the reasons why the Crown believes it was Omar that stabbed Dickinson, that it was not in self-defense, that it was intentional, and that he had not lost control of himself at the time.
Stokes leaned heavily on the testimony of two bar security personnel who were at the scene when the fight occurred that led to Dickinson lying on the pavement with wounds to both his chest and abdomen.
Rupert Cameron was working as a doorman that evening and had been outside the bar both before and during the fight. The fight had started as an argument inside the bar, before spilling out onto the street. What started the dispute between the two men is still unknown.
Cameron had testified that Omar seemed to be thinking about something intensely, but was otherwise calm outside the bar. Cameron also testified he heard Omar utter under his breath something to the effect of "I'm going to f*** that guy up," just before Dickinson exited the bar.
Stokes used this testimony to argue that Omar had intended to do harm to Dickinson.
According to the testimony, when Dickenson did come out of the bar, he ran at Omar and a brief tussle ensued before the two men fell to the ground. Omar then fled the scene, and Dickinson was left with two stab wounds.
Stokes argued that the use of a knife — he described it as a 12.5 inch replica of the kind of weapon a Vietnam war-era Navy Seal would have carried — in a situation where Omar was only threatened with fists, does not meet the standard of self-defense.
"You don't bring a knife to a fist fight," Stokes said.
Stokes summed up the Crown's case by arguing the evidence shows a person who was in control and stabbed a person twice in a dangerous part of the body.
After the court heard from Stokes, Omar told the jury only that he had decided he would "respectfully decline" to make a closing argument.
According to Saunders, if the jury cannot reach a verdict on Thursday, the members will be sequestered overnight in a hotel.
