The Crown prosecutor was building his case Tuesday in the murder trial of Oliver Karafa and Lucy Li. The jury heard evidence from a friend of Karafa’s who was mistakenly arrested for the murder.

As the trial proceedings began, the judge had a message of caution for the jury. One of the lawyers had suggested to a witness that Karafa killed someone as a drunk driver at the age of 19.

“You may not conclude that because Karafa may have had a prior conviction or otherwise had a bad character it is more likely he committed the crimes he is charged with,” Justice Harrison Arrell told the jury.

“You may not reason that … Karafa is the sort of person who would commit the offence here.”

Karafa and Li are charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Tyler Pratt and with attempted murder in the shooting of Pratt’s girlfriend Jordyn Romano in Stoney Creek on Feb. 28, 2021.

As the prosecution developed its case Tuesday, it called a friend of Karafa’s to the stand.

The friend, Toronto Chef Phi Chinh, said he agreed to the switch of a so-called SIM identity card in his phone, that could track a phone’s location, with a card from a phone belonging to one of the accused on the day of the murder.

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Chinh testified that he was arrested for the murder 10 months later because of cell phone records until he explained the SIM card switch to the police.

Chinh said he never expected a Sim card belonging to him would be tracked to a murder.

In another development, the Crown presented an agreed statement of fact from a man who appeared to be from Montreal saying he had been negotiating with Karafa to buy a white Range Rover SUV and an older Audi A5.

At first, the evidence said Karafa wanted $30,000 for the vehicles.

According to the statement, he eventually agreed to take a total of $2,000, but insisted the vehicles be sent out of the country.

One text message from Karafa said, “Get rid of it. You will export right? So no trace of them.”

The court has been told that Karafa and Li drove to the scene of the murder in a white Audi and that Romano was shot and injured as she sat in a white Range Rover.