Musgrave trial final arguments

A jury heard closing arguments Wednesday from the lawyers for both men accused of killing 18-year old Brandon Musgrave at a Dundurn Street student house party in March of 2010.

Lisa Hepfner has been following this trial and joins us live with the latest.

27-year old Tyrone Chambers and 25-year old Joshua Warner are both charged with second degree murder in the death of Brandon Musgrave and 2 counts of aggravated assault for two other men shot that night, Ted Tsibu-darkoh and Kauner Chinambu. There were three shots fired that night. Each one hit a person. The question for the jury is who did the shooting?

Chambers and Warner were at the party together that night, both brought loaded guns, but they are no longer friends and each blames the other for Brandon Musgrave’s death.

In this security video from the trial, you can see Tyrone Chambers, in the striped hoodie, and Joshua Warner, in all black, going into the party at 53 Dundurn. And it later shows both men running away. Chambers was arrested a few weeks later in Halifax. Warner made it to South America and it was a year before he was arrested.

The video also shows Ted Tsibu-darkoh come onto the porch after the shooting, holding his white shirt over the bullet wound on his shoulder.

Warner’s lawyer says he admits “winging” Tsibu-darkoh that night, but he says Chambers fired at the other two who were hit. Brandon Musgrave, court heard, tried to diffuse an argument over music after he saw the guns come out. Musgrave said, it’s not worth it. Then he was shot in the head and died. Musgrave’s friend Kauner Chinambu was shot in the wrist and chest and recovered.

Earlier in the trial, Chambers testified in his own defence. He says he never fired his gun that night; that he fled to Halifax because he worried about being caught with a loaded weapon. An admitted crack cocaine dealer, he was under court order not to carry a gun. He says he was afraid of being falsely accused of the murder.

Warner did not testify himself; his lawyer says his defence is to agree with most of the witnesses from the party who said Chambers was the one who kept getting into arguments that night and who said they saw Chambers’ sock-covered weapon fire before Musgrave and Chinambu fell.

Thursday, the crown Lidia Narozniak will wrap her case, then the judge will charge the jury and they will likely be deliberating by the afternoon.