Fate of the accused in North Bay murder trial in the hands of the jury

After two weeks of testimony, Brandon Nakogee’s second-degree murder trial concluded Thursday in a North Bay courtroom.

Jury deliberations were ongoing as of Thursday evening.

Nakogee is charged with the death of Tristan Ayers, 33, who was stabbed to death in an alleyway in North Bay on Dec. 17, 2022.

In his final address to the jury Jan. 22, Crown attorney Michael Crystal said Ayers and a woman, Lizzie Mattinas, were warming their hands by a small fire in an alleyway.

Around the same time in the same area, Nakogee and another man, Trevor Goulais, were looking for a smoke when they met a man named Craig Bullock on the street. Bullock told them he was out of cigarettes, but said they should ask Ayers.

When they found him, Nakogee and Goulais told Mattinas to leave, after which Goulais attacked Ayers with a stick.

Crystal told jurors that the stick broke in two. The Crown said Nakogee felt they weren’t winning the fight, so he pulled out a knife and began stabbing Ayers in the back, severing an artery.

When Ayers went down, his feet flailed and that’s when Nakogee stabbed him in the legs.

The attack continued as Ayers crawled over a guardrail into the Worthington Street West’s LCBO parking lot, where he bled to death.

Jurors saw graphic photos of Ayers’ body after the attack, highlighting five stab wounds on his leg and back.

Jurors also saw video from a police interrogation in which Nakogee, who had consumed fentanyl the day of his arrest, told police he stabbed Ayers because he wanted to make sure Goulais didn’t lose the fight, but he said he didn’t know how many times he stabbed the victim.

Defence Lawyer Laurie Galway tried to poke holes in the Crown’s theory, arguing that Nakogee was just tagging along with Goulais and had no plan to assault or kill Ayers.

Galway played security camera footage from the parking lot, which was partially blocked by a vehicle. It showed Nakogee standing by and watching Goulais attack Ayers, raising his arm over his head as he attacked.

The video shows that it was Goulais, not Nakogee, who stabbed Ayers in the back, the defence lawyer said. Galway argued that Nakogee only stabbed Ayers in the legs to defend Goulais, whom Nakogee said was too weak to fight.

Goulais already pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was convicted in 2024.

In his charge to the jury, Superior Court Justice Greg Ellies reminded the jury that Goulais’ guilty plea should not be considered when rendering their verdict.

He reminded them that they are the judges of facts in this trial and to consider all evidence impartially.