A second-degree murder trial began Wednesday in Greater Sudbury for David Pusey, 31, who is charged in the shooting death of a 24-year-old man in August 2023. Pusey, who is also charged with possession of a prohibited firearm without a license, is accused in the death of Andrew ‘AJ’ Mackey. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges. On Aug. 5, 2023, Greater Sudbury police were called to a weapons complaint on Louis Street and discovered a seriously injured Mackey at the scene. He was pronounced dead at Health Sciences North in Sudbury. Two men were arrested a short time later on Notre Dame Avenue and a firearm was seized. One of the men matched the description of the shooter. After the jury was selected Wednesday morning, assistant Crown Attorney Stephanie Baker called her first witness, Sara Tremblay. Tremblay, who now lives in Timmins, testified to spending Friday evening with four female friends, a night that started with drinks at her friend’s place on Louis Street. After they all went to a local bar, they connected with some male acquaintances, including Mackey. Tremblay said she had met him a handful of times before, along with another man she knew only by his nickname ‘Not Nice.’ In court Wednesday, she identified Pusey as the man she knew as ‘Not Nice.’ Tremblay testified that after the bar, she went back to her friend’s house on Louis Street for an after-party. The men from the bar also joined them. Tremblay says she went to bed, alone, in one of the bedrooms around 4 a.m. Saturday. Argument outside woke her up Tremblay testified that the noise from an argument going on outside the apartment woke her up. She got up to use the washroom, after which she asked one of her female friends who was inside the apartment if everything was OK. That friend reassured her everything was fine. Tremblay said she had just turned around to go back to bed when she said she heard “a bang.” Becoming emotional as she recalled the events, Tremblay testified that another female friend then came in the front door “crying hysterically.” Tremblay said that her friend came in and told them, “AJ was dead.” However, during cross-examination, defence counsel Denis Michel referred to a transcript of Tremblay’s 911 call. In the transcript, she never mentioned that her friend told her anything about AJ. Tremblay testified that “she panicked” and left the scene five minutes after hearing the bang. She saw AJ’s body lying on the grass outside. She drove to her home on Martin Street and then called 911, more than an hour later. Michel also asked her about a phone call she made later that afternoon when she spoke with police investigators. He asked whether, on either of her phone calls, she mentioned the man known as ‘Not Nice.’ Tremblay said no. Also testifying on Day 1 were two Sudbury police officers. Both said they arrived at the scene shortly after the initial 911 call came in at 6:46 a.m. Both testified that Mackey had been shot in the chest and that first responders tried to save him using chest compressions. In the course of the three-week trial, the Crown is expected to call 15 witnesses, including other people who attended the after-party and police officers who investigated the case. In Canada, the maximum sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison.
