Footage from a body camera worn by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Const. Greg Pierzchala will show the moment he was shot while responding to a vehicle in a ditch in December 2022 outside Hagersville, the Crown told the opening of the first-degree murder trial of the two accused.
Crown prosecutor Fraser McKracken also said Thursday he will show a redacted version of the footage to the jury on Friday when he interviews bystanders who said they witnessed the shooting.
Randall McKenzie and Brandi Stewart-Sperry have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Both defendants have their own defence lawyers for the trial.
At the time of Pierzchala’s death, he was 28 and police said he was killed the same day he learned he had passed his 10-month probation period with the OPP.
After the Crown’s opening statement Thursday, the court began hearing from witnesses who said they stopped at the side of the road to help McKenzie and Stewart-Sperry after their car ended up in the ditch.
One couple travelling to Christmas dinner offered to call a cab or roadside assistance, McKracken said. A mother and daughter on their way to the gas station offered to give the pair a lift.
The last person who stopped to help McKenzie and Stewart-Sperry was Pierzchala, court heard. The Crown alleges while McKenzie pulled the trigger, Stewart-Sperry helped him.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Andrew Goodman is presiding over the trial. It’s being held in Cayuga, a community near Hagersville, and is expected to last six weeks.
McKracken outlined several instances of drivers pulling up alongside McKenzie and Stewart-Sperry near Town Line and Concession 14 before Pierzchala, who was stationed in the area, arrived.
The officer saw two bystanders were with the defendants, McKracken said. Pierzchala turned on his body camera before getting out of the car, and told the others he was recording their interaction and trying to figure out what happened, court heard.
According to McKracken, Stewart-Sperry told the officer she was looking at a map and swerved. As she was talking, McKenzie moved around to Pierzchala’s side. He had a handgun concealed in his hoodie’s kangaroo pocket, the prosecutor said, and used it to shoot Pierzchala six times.
The Crown called four witnesses on Thursday. Lawyers asked them to describe what happened when they stopped to help McKenzie and Stewart-Sperry, and to describe the scene.
According to the Crown, after McKenzie shot the officer, he demanded the bystanders’ keys and stole their car, fleeing with Stewart-Sperry. A different passerby chased them in his vehicle but lost sight of where they went, McKracken said.
Using the vehicle’s security system, police tracked the car to a home on Mississauga Road on Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, McKracken said.
He said McKenzie’s family lived at that home, and some of his family members — including his brother and cousin — will be called to testify.
A family member warned the defendants that police were coming and the two fled into the woods, court was told. As police chased them on foot, an OPP officer in a helicopter tracked the pair with thermal imaging.
The two fled together and then split up. Stewart-Sperry surrendered soon after, followed by McKenzie surrendering, the Crown said.
According to McKracken, the officer in the helicopter observed McKenzie discarding a gun, which police recovered and forensic scientists identified as being the same customized handgun used in the Pierzchala shooting.
McKenzie also had a phone on him that included texts from Dec. 14, 2022. It’s uncertain at this point if those texts will be presented as evidence.
