Closing arguments were delivered Wednesday in a Sudbury courtroom in the second-degree murder trial of David ‘Not Nice’ Pusey. The charges stem from the shooting death of 24-year-old Andrew ‘A.J’ Mackey outside a housing complex on Louis Street in the early morning of Aug. 5, 2023. Pusey, 31, is also charged with possession of a prohibited firearm without a licence. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. In the three-week trial, assistant Crown Attorney Stephanie Baker called about a dozen witnesses, including people who attended the same after-party at the apartment where the shooting happened at 6:44 a.m. Many sources of evidence “This is not about one piece of evidence,” Baker said to the jury during her closing address, which included going over key testimony from witnesses. Rather, her case was “built upon multiple independent sources of evidence,” she said. Baker highlighted surveillance videos, including one that showed people standing outside the apartment. There is a gap before another video shows the victim falling over after he was shot in the chest at close range. Baker also mentioned the six-minute timeline between when Mackey was shot and when two men were arrested on Notre Dame Avenue. One man fit the description of the shooter. During the arrest, police also located a firearm. The Crown must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Pusey shot Mackey. Poked holes in Crown’s case Defence lawyers Michael and Denis Michel didn’t call any witnesses during the trial. During closing arguments, however, they suggested there were holes in the Crown’s case. Those included suggesting that police didn’t do an extensive enough investigation after arrests were made. Denis Michel also suggested witnesses from the party were heavily intoxicated by drugs and alcohol, which would affect their memories of what happened that day. “He’s so drunk he can’t remember anything,” Michel said of one witness who gave differing statements to police in the hours and days following the shooting. As well, he pointed to challenges with surveillance videos presented during the case. There is a gap of more than a minute between footage of the individuals outside the apartment and the footage of Mackey falling over after he was shot. “There’s a lot of gaps in video evidence,” Michel told the jury. The judge began her charge to the jury Wednesday afternoon and is expected to finish Thursday morning before jury deliberations begin. In Canada, the maximum sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison.
