Server at nightclub says Pat Stay was in ‘verbal altercation’ before stabbing

A woman who was witnessed a verbal altercation before Pat Stay’s murder testified in N.S. court Monday.

Brinn McKenzie, a server at the Yacht Club Social in September 2022, testified on Monday at Adam Drake’s second-degree murder trial.

In charge of the VIP area, McKenzie was working the night of Pat Stay’s death and heard a verbal altercation between Stay and a man in a white shirt at about 12:35 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2022.

She says she did not see any weapons or what caused the blood she saw after Stay turned from a group of people he was interacting with at the nightclub.

She testified she didn’t know Drake or Stay in Sept. 2022, but later learned who Stay was. She never identified Drake in her testimony or while watching any video in court, but continued describing a man in a white shirt.

Nicole Zakhour, a previous Crown witness, has testified Drake was wearing a white shirt when they were out that night.

Greetings, verbal altercation

McKenzie testified that after Stay walked into the club, he “was standing right next to me, within an arm’s length” while greeting a group of people with handshakes and fist bumps.

She told the jury Stay did not greet the man in the white shirt, and she witnessed a “verbal altercation” between Stay and him. Stay had pushed the man in the white shirt, she testified.

“I did not hear what was said because it was loud in there,” McKenzie told the jury.

Another man in an orange hoodie pushed Stay, she said, before Stay left the table.

She said after the altercation with the man in the white shirt, “Pat turned and ran out of the bar and then slipped in his own blood and got up and continued to run out of the bar.”

When asked by the Crown, McKenzie said she did not see any weapons or what caused the blood.

During the verbal altercation, she said others made comments appearing to come “from a place of concern about what was going on.”

Cross-examination

During cross-examination by Drake’s defence lawyer Michael Lacy, McKenzie agreed that she never saw the man in the white shirt initiate any physical altercation with Stay.

He asked McKenzie if there were more people in the area where the stabbing happened than the four people she was serving that evening. She agreed.

She also said it was tough to identify people through the video footage, which was black-and-white surveillance footage from the club.

Drake has pleaded not guilty to the charge. Monday marked day 12 of the 24 days set aside for the trial. Testimony continues Tuesday.

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