Ibey’s defence rests after calling single witness

Just 30 minutes of testimony.

That’s all it took a lawyer for Nikolas Ibey, accused of killing Savanna Pikuyak, to wrap up his case in an Ottawa courtroom Tuesday following two weeks of testimony from Crown witnesses.

Ibey, 35, is charged with first-degree murder in the Sept. 11, 2022, death of Pikuyak, 22, who was originally from Sanirajak.

She had moved to Ottawa to study nursing at Algonquin College and was staying in a spare room of the house Ibey rented from his brother in Ottawa’s Nepean area, about two kilometres from the college.

On Tuesday, Ibey’s lawyer, Ewan Lyttle, spent a half-hour questioning the sole witness for the defence, retired Winnipeg chief medical examiner Dr. Peter Markesteyn, to call into question earlier Crown testimony from an expert witness.

Markesteyn testified by videoconference from Winnipeg. He currently works as a consultant in forensic pathology, and estimated he has performed more than 8,000 autopsies. He has consulted for Innocence Canada, which advocates for people who have been wrongly convicted, and worked three years for the United Nations and NATO, examining allegations of unmarked graves.

Lyttle focused his questions to Markesteyn on a suspected abrasion on the victim’s vagina that was missed during the autopsy but later detected on a photograph from the autopsy.

“In your opinion, is exclusively looking at a photograph alone a reliable way to assess and classify an injury?” Lyttle asked the pathologist.

“It is not, and I was taught it was not many years ago by my colleagues,” Markesteyn replied.

He said that based on the photograph, he could not classify what the “mark” was.

Even relying on an enlarged image is “insufficient” to classify and reach a conclusion on what the mark is, he said.

In court Nov. 19, Crown witness and forensic pathologist Dr. James MacPherson testified that a vaginal abrasion had been missed during the autopsy and only detected later in a photograph.

Because it was missed, Lyttle said at the time, there was no possibility to examine the injury under a microscope.

Markesteyn said Tuesday that microscopic examinations can reveal details such as the age or cause of an injury.

While Markesteyn found fault with some of MacPherson’s work, he agreed Pikuyak suffered multiple blows to her head and that marks on her upper arms and hands were likely defensive injuries.

He also agreed the shape of the wounds indicated they could have been caused by a wooden plank and that the cause of death was “obstruction of airway and compression of the neck.”

Earlier in the trial, the Crown presented as evidence a piece of wood with splatters of Pikuyak’s blood.

Under cross-examination by Crown lawyer Sonia Beauchamp, Markesteyn confirmed he has not performed an autopsy in “about 10 years” and has not been registered as a forensic pathologist for seven years.

Beauchamp also pointed out that he had never been licensed or practised in Ontario.

The Crown concluded its case on Monday.

When the trial resumes Thursday, the Crown, defence and Justice Robert L. Maranger will discuss the nature of the charges the jury should consider in their deliberations.

The Crown and defence are expected to make their closing arguments Friday.