Murder trial jury hears closing arguments

Jason Tessier didn’t seek out Alex Levesque because he wanted to “tune him up,” Tessier’s lawyer Andrew Buttazzoni told the jury Monday at his client’s second-degree murder trial.

Rather, Buttazzoni said in his closing address, Tessier wanted to tell Levesque to leave Sandra Bunyak alone.

“Regrettably, things got out of hand,” Buttazzoni said.

Crown attorney Paul Larsh, on the other hand, said Tessier was so angry Levesque had sexually assaulted Bunyak according to Bunyak, he “tried, convicted and sentenced him in a few minutes in a kitchen in Sturgeon Falls.”

Not worthy of belief
Levesque’s badly beaten body was found in a second floor apartment at 248 Levesque Street July 29, 2002.

Tessier and his friends Warren England and Devland McCosham were arrested.
Tessier pleaded not guilty, while McCosham pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a separate court proceeding.

Buttazzoni said while on the stand several Crown witnesses had not “adopted” statements they had given to police earlier, referring specifically to Bunyak, a former Sturgeon Falls bar owner who had been in the apartment kitchen July 29, and Richard Danis Sr., who’d been outside the apartment on the patio on the same day.

“Both are not worthy of belief,” Buttazzoni said

Talk turned bad
Tessier was concerned after Bunyak had revealed Levesque had sexually assaulted her one evening at the King Edward Hotel, in Sturgeon Falls, which she had owned.

Tessier, McCosham and England originally planned to meet Levesque at a chip stand, Buttazzoni said, across from the Levesque Street apartment. Levesque, Buttazzoni said, had agreed to the meeting too.

“This wasn’t some dark deserted alley where there would be no witnesses,” Buttazzoni said.

Everyone ended up in the apartment kitchen instead.
“This was to be a talk, but the talk turned bad,” Buttazzoni said.

Tessier had testified he wanted to talk to Levesque in person rather than on the phone.

“His explanation was that that was the sort of thing you didn’t talk about over the phone,” Buttazzoni said, adding he brought two big guys along, England and McCosham, because their size “would dissuade someone from doing anything like that again.”

Unsavoury admitted liar
Buttazzoni said Tessier had taken Bunyak out of the kitchen after Levesque lunged at her with a knife, and that’s when McCosham started punching the North Bay man.

Buttazzoni also said witnesses who had testified seeing Bunyak leave the apartment alone were too distracted with other matters to have seen Tessier leave with her.

And as to claims from a Crown witness that Tessier had bragged in jail he’d murdered a man “with these two hands,” Buttazzoni said the witness was an “unsavoury, admitted liar” who later changed the statement he gave to police.

And lastly, Buttazzoni said, Tessier had offered to take a lie detector test and answer three questions: did he kill anybody, pay someone else to kill anybody or instruct someone else to kill anybody.

“No one took him up on his offer,” Buttazzoni told the jury, “so considering the lack of evidence it would be unsafe to return with a verdict of ‘guilty’ to second-degree murder or manslaughter.”

Customized to favour Tessier
Larsh painted a different picture for the 12 men and women.

“Jason Tessier says he had nothing to do with the death, that it was not his fault, that it was the fault of others, that he was a victim of circumstance in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Larsh said.

“But Tessier and his friends took the law into their own hands with real, tragic and predictable consequences from that code of conduct.”

Larsh agreed that the confrontation that led to Levesque’s death had stemmed from his sexual assault of Bunyak.

He pointed out Bunyak and Tessier were close friends and related too, and that Bunyak’s testimony was customized “to favour Tessier.”

Tessier testified he had not been looking for Alex Levesque July 28, as one witness had told the trial.

“But he admitted travelling to North Bay, Levesque’s home town, and we know he was there because he had been stopped by the OPP,” Larsh said.
“And Tessier said he’d made the trip there to go to a strip bar, one that Bunyak said she had frequented too.”


Loud sounds of a commotion
Larsh also said when Levesque saw Tessier and his friends coming toward him at the chip stand, “he had no idea he was about to be confronted and he ran away to the apartment where he thought he’d be safe.”

Even if Tessier hadn’t touched Levesque, Larsh added, “he knew McCosham’s temper and knew McCosham would assault Levesque.”

Two witnesses also testified they saw three men leaving the apartment after Bunyak had already left. They also said they’d heard loud sounds of a commotion or a fight going on inside the apartment.

Larsh also said the Crown witness who had changed his statement about Tessier and the hands incident had done so because he was afraid of Tessier.

Larsh also said Tessier would only allow three questions to be asked as part of the lie detector test, rather than taking it without conditions.

Justice George Valin will instruct the jury today on the points of the law they must consider while deliberating.