Accused murderer Ekene Anigbo sat in prison sweats with more than a dozen evidence books stacked on the table in front of him in a Kelowna court room as Crown lawyers began their closing submissions in his trial on June 1.
Anigbo’s defence team has claimed no case in the trial and is relying on the alleged weakness of the evidence presented by Crown to reach a not-guilty verdict.
Charged with first degree murder, Anigbo is alleged by Crown to be part of a larger conspiracy that led to the killing of 57-year-old Naramata woman Kathleen Richardson inside her home on June 9, 2021.
Appearing before Justice Beames in Kelowna, Anigbo’s trial started March 3 in which Crown alleged Anigbo and co-conspirator Jalen Falk confined Richardson with zip ties and duct tape before shooting her twice in the head.
Falk pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 16 years.
The conspiracy, Crown told the court, is one of revenge for the May 2021 deaths of brothers Erick and Carlos Fryer, and an allegation that the people responsible for their deaths had stolen drugs and money belonging to acquaintances of Anigbo.
At the time of Richardson’s death, it was believed that one of the people responsible for the killing of the Fryer brothers was Richardson’s son, Wade Cudmore. Cudmore was suspected to be residing at his mom’s home at this time.
On June 9, 2021, an officer attended Richardson’s home looking for Cudmore to warn him of an alleged murder plot against him. Instead of finding her son, the officer found a door to the residence left open and discovered Richardson’s body in the basement.
Cudmore was arrested the following day for first-degree murder of the Fryer brothers. He was sentenced in 2024 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 18 years. Cudmore’s co-accused Anthony Graham disappeared shortly after the killings and is considered a missing person.
A third individual, Shahram Tohky, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in Prince George, for his alleged part in a shooting in 2021 that targeted Graham, in which Falk and Anigbo were named in the indictment but not charged.
Crown lawyers argued reasonable inferences can be made from the evidence presented that Anigbo was involved in Richardson’s death. Laying it out for the Justice, Crown put together a chronology of the evidence presented and a document summarizing the people involved, the vehicles and cell phone devices related to each individual and how the evidence connects in order to prove guilt.
The trial is expected to continue through the week.