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A Windsor lawyer “denies it was intentional” if he left the impression with a key witness in a murder case that she’d be offered “witness protection” if she cooperated with police.
In startling testimony earlier in the first-degree murder trial of Kahli Johnson-Phillips, 27, that witness told the court under oath she falsely named the accused in a sworn police statement after having been “coached” to do so by her lawyer. In return, she testified, the “deal” specified she’d be entered into a witness protection program with a new name and home.
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Assistant Crown attorney Bryan Pillon told the Superior Court of Justice jury after that testimony that “there was no deal, I’ll be very clear to you.” During subsequent cross-examination, the lawyer for Johnson-Phillips, Michael Moon, said: “Your lawyer lied to you. It was your lawyer who betrayed you.”
In what Justice Pamela Hebner told jurors was “a delicate issue,” the lawyer in question was not called in to testify for his version of events but rather a written “agreed statement of facts” was entered as trial evidence.
In the three-page document, the lawyer stated he had not kept written notes nor could he recall what was discussed with his incarcerated client during at least seven meetings at the South West Detention Centre prior to her videotaped interview with a Windsor Police Service detective on July 10, 2019.
In that six-hour interview, played in court earlier, the woman, herself facing a charge of first-degree murder at the time in connection to the case, named the accused. She told the officer under oath that Johnson-Phillips drove the Nissan Altima she was in from Mississauga the night that Jason Pantlitz-Solomon, 20, was killed in downtown Windsor shortly before 3 a.m. on Aug. 27, 2018.
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In his statement on Friday, the Windsor lawyer said his client acted against his instructions in giving that police interview, but he added that he had not secured written directions or a waiver from his client in advance, something that would be consistent with standard practice for Ontario lawyers.
Friday’s statement read to the jury also said: “A failure to keep notes is inconsistent with best practices for competent counsel.”
The lawyer in question ended his association with that client shortly after her statement to police after disclosing the fact he had acted earlier that year for Jerome Solomon, the twin brother of the deceased.
The agreed statement of facts concludes with the lawyer’s acknowledgment that “on an objective assessment, his actions in service of his client … at best, fell below the standard expected of a reasonable and competent counsel licensed by the Law Society of Ontario.”
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Eight weeks after the start of the trial, the Crown on Friday concluded its case. The defence said it would not be calling any witnesses of its own.
The jury is expected to hear closing arguments on Nov. 20.
Also on Friday, following an application by the defence, Justice Hebner agreed to amend the second criminal count against Johnson-Phillips — for the wounding that night of Pantlitz-Solomon’s girlfriend, who was shot in the leg — from attempted murder to the lesser offence of aggravated assault.
dschmidt@postmedia.com
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