A jury watched intently as the moment Pat Stay was fatally stabbed was played out on video in court on Wednesday. The trial also heard testimony about how a police sergeant tried to lock down the scene immediately after responding to a Halifax bar for a “man down” call in 2022. Adam Drake is charged with second-degree murder in Stay’s death. The moment was difficult to see because of the crowd inside the Yacht Club Social. It happened about 12:36 a.m. on the video surveillance timestamp. You could see what appeared to be blood on Stay’s shirt when he turned around. Seconds later, he was punched by someone else in the club, as he walked out of the frame of that camera. It was an emotional moment for supporters of Stay who watched the video in the public gallery of the courtroom. One woman shouted obscenities in the direction of the accused as she walked out of court. Justice Scott Norton instructed sheriffs not to let that person back inside the courtroom. Officer in charge Sgt. Perry Astephen, a ‘road sergeant’ in charge of Halifax police officers patrolling the downtown area, said it was a “code one” response at about 12:33 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2022, which means it’s a top priority and dispatches anyone who is available to respond. After arriving within two or three minutes of the call, he said he observed more than 100 people on the roadway, exiting and entering the bar, and surrounding Pat Stay. Among other things, he tasked officers with clearing out the crowd and obtaining surveillance footage from the club. Astephen told the jury he observed a “significant blood trail” that came from back of the Yacht Club Social to where Stay was located, lying on the ground outside the bar on Lower Water Street. “Somebody lost a lot of blood,” he said. He said EHS was on standby, but had to wait until the scene was cleared out. It “seemed like it took a while,” for the ambulance to get there, “but it always does.” Ultimately, it took a “matter of minutes,” he said. After “controlling” the scene outside, Astephen said he went into the bar and that, “Staff wasn’t really cooperative at the beginning, they were kind of downplaying it, they were actually trying to mop up the scene, so I stopped that immediately.” He identified two staff members of the club who he thought might be witnesses, so he had them transported to the police station for interviews. Astephen told the jury it was “taking way too long” to get people out of there. “There’s more we could’ve done,” he testified about protecting the scene. But while trying to get people out, many witnesses left, he said. ‘Very weak pulse’ Cst. Joshua Sutton, a uniformed patrol officer, took the witness stand as the Crown’s second witness. He testified about rendering first aid to Stay, who was lying on the ground outside the club. He had a “very weak pulse,” Sutton said, adding that Stay wasn’t conversing and was in and out of consciousness. Sutton went in the ambulance with Stay and arrived at a trauma room at the QEII Hospital around 1 a.m. He testified that Stay was pronounced dead less than half an hour later. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
