Questions of sex assault, confinement hang over Ibey trial

Jurors in the Nikolas Ibey murder trial were told Monday their decision whether to convict the Ottawa man of first-degree murder hinges on whether they believe he also sexually assaulted or forcibly confined Savanna Pikuyak before killing her.

Crown and defence lawyers presented their closing arguments at the trial, which started Nov. 12 at the Ottawa courthouse. Ibey, 35, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Pikuyak, 22.

Neither the Crown nor defence lawyers are disputing that Ibey killed Pikuyak on Sept. 11, 2022, at his house in Ottawa.

At the opening of his trial Ibey pleaded guilty to second-degree murder — but not guilty to first-degree murder — Crown prosecutor Sonia Beauchamp said.

Convicting Ibey on the charge of first-degree murder, she explained, hinges on whether the jury believes Ibey intended to kill Pikuyak when he came to her room that night, whether he sexually assaulted her, or whether she was forcibly confined.

Savanna Pikuyak, shown in an undated photo, died Sept. 11, 2022 in a room she rented from Nikolas Ibey. (Photo courtesy of Sheba Pikuyak)

Beauchamp said that under Canadian law, under some circumstances, a second-degree murder charge gets elevated to first-degree murder.

An intent to kill or planning to kill would make it first-degree murder. If the jury were to rule that a sexual assault or forceable confinement occurred during the killing, then the jury would have no choice but to find Ibey guilty of first-degree murder, Beauchamp said.

She re-exhibited some of the graphic crime scene photos jurors saw during the first week of the trial.

“These pictures tell a thousand words. These pictures tell it all,” Beauchamp said.

“They are the pictures of a first-degree murder, of an undeniable sexual assault and the forcible confinement that happened at the bedroom door.”

The photos were taken soon after police discovered Pikuyak’s body, mostly unclothed and bludgeoned in her bedroom.

Four days earlier, she had moved from Sanirajak into a room in Ibey’s home in Ottawa to study nursing at Algonquin College.

During the trial, jurors heard that Ibey contacted 30 escorts in the hours before Pikuyak’s body was found.

“After almost eight hours of relentlessly pursuing sex, all of which were frustrated and futile, Nikolas Ibey went upstairs and armed himself with a piece of wood because he was anticipating resistance in taking what he wanted from her,” Beauchamp said.

The way her body was found — with her pants at her feet, her bra and shirt tied around her arms and head, lying prone on the bed after having suffered multiple blows to her body and head — is all evidence of first-degree murder, Beauchamp said.

Ibey knew Pikuyak would fight back. “And she did, she fought,” which was made clear by the defensive wounds on her hands and arms, Beauchamp said.

She said blood pools found at the entrance to Pikuyak’s bedroom were evidence Ibey attacked her there and that Ibey wasn’t going to let her leave.

Beauchamp noted Ibey was more than a foot taller than Pikuyak and 100 pounds heavier.

“He told the jurors what he wanted 800 times. He could not have made his intentions to the jury any more clearly,” Beauchamp said, referring to the 895 texts Ibey exchanged with escorts in the hours before Pikuyak’s death.

Ibey’s lawyer Ewan Lyttle told jurors, “What happened to Ms. Pikuyak was awful, it was tragic and it was heartbreaking.”

Lyttle agreed there is no question Ibey murdered Pikuyak.

“But Mr. Ibey did not commit sexual assault,” Lyttle said, describing the Crown’s case against his client as entirely circumstantial.

“In this case, there is no direct evidence the deceased was sexually assaulted,” Lyttle said.

He said if there are “reasonable inferences” that what happened was not a sexual assault, then the jury cannot declare Ibey guilty of first-degree murder.

“The Crown must establish that their theory is the only possibility of what happened,” he said.

Ibey attacked Pikuyak out of “pure anger and rage,” Lyttle said.

But Pikuyak was taking anti-depressant medication, he said, so her state of mind is uncertain. It’s not clear, Lyttle suggested, whether Ibey and Pikuyak were even getting along.

“The potential for conflict existed,” Lyttle said. “We just don’t know.”

On Tuesday, Justice Robert Maranger is expected to instruct the jury on the evidence they need to consider before they begin deliberations.