Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Lucy Li takes the stand in Stoney Creek murder trial

First Published:

A woman accused of first degree murder testified about the victim today as someone who was “extra dangerous.”

Lucy Li took the stand in her own defence, describing the man who was killed as a criminal, a sex trafficker and a drug dealer.

Li is charged with first-degree murder along with Oliver Karafa in the killing that took place in February 2021.

Victim Tyler Pratt was found shot to death outside a warehouse in Stoney Creek while his girlfriend Jordyn Romano was shot and injured.

READ MORE: Forensic detective describes what he found at scene of Stoney Creek murder

Li testified that Karafa wanted to go into business with Pratt and Romano.

“I thought they were dangerous criminals and didn’t want anything to do with them,” Li said.

She said Pratt and Romano wanted to go into business “bringing in girls from Vancouver and South America. Managing the girls.”

She called it a “prostitution or escort business” and “human trafficking” which she says is “not right.”

She also said she’d heard Pratt was a drug dealer in Vancouver.

Li says she worked providing insurance products to clients, and Pratt wanted to buy one of the products.

READ MORE: Defence lawyer questions moral compass of key witness in Karafa, Li trial

But she said “I was starting to realize that Tyler thought this could be a new potential opportunity where the clients would be gang member friends where they could launder money.”

And she said “I was scared at this point.”

“I realized I wouldn’t be accepting these people as clients.”

But she said her husband Karafa and Pratt were planning to start a new marijuana grow op, and found a warehouse in Stoney Creek.

That was where Pratt was found dead after being shot six times.

The Crown argues that Karafa was the shooter.

Li ended her testimony with her lawyer’s questions getting closer and closer to the events of February 28, 2021, when Pratt was gunned down and killed.

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