A Crown prosecutor in a high-profile North Okanagan murder case says the evidence is “overwhelming” that the accused, Vitali Stefanski, stabbed his ex-wife Tatjana Stefanski to death, and that his intent to kill her was equally clear from the evidence jurors have witnessed over the past month.
Vitali’s second-degree murder trial saw closing arguments from the Crown Tuesday, with prosecutor Laura Drake urging jurors to weigh the evidence fairly and with the use of logic, common sense and human experience.
These three faculties “can lead you to one and only one conclusion in this case,” Drake told the B.C. Supreme Court jury at the Kamloops courthouse. “Mr. Stefanski murdered his ex-wife by stabbing her to death on April 13, 2024.”
Vitali pleaded not-guilty to the second-degree murder charge last month, sending the case to a lengthy trial by judge and jury.
During the trial, Vitali claimed that Tatjana had stabbed herself with his fishing knife while in his Audi car on the same morning she was reported missing, with police believing her to have been possibly abducted.
Her body was found with seven stab wounds and more than a dozen other sharp-force wounds down a steep embankement off a rural logging road about an hour outside Lumby.
During an intense cross-examination earlier in the trial, Vitali rejected previous testimony from two Mounties who said he had confessed to the murder after he emerged shoeless and dishevelled from the woods along Mabel Lake Road as officers were towing away his bloodied vehicle.
He said that rather than dumping her body, an unresponsive Tatjana had instead slipped from his vehicle and his grasp and tumbled down the embankment.
Tatjana’s body was discovered on April 14, and Vitali previously told the court that on that day, he was still holding out hope that she was alive.
Drake called this “quite literally an incredible claim,” meaning it is not capable of being believed that Vitali thought Tatjana may have been alive that day. She asserted that instead, he had killed her and was trying not to get caught.
In her closing arguments, Drake said Vitali’s testimony that Tatjana had caused her own death was an “insult to logic, common sense and human experience,” given the number and location of the stab wounds.
The prosecutor called the autopsy photos shown earlier this month “the most important pieces of evidence in this case.” She had some of the photos shown again in court on June 24.
“With each photo, ask yourself how could you have any doubt based on all the evidence that you’ve heard that Mr. Stefanski is guilty of anything but murder,” she said to the jurors, highlighting the severity of the stab wounds and the fact that Vitali had agreed during cross examination that only himself or Tatjana could have caused them, as the injuries didn’t exist before he had pushed Tatjana into his car on the morning of April 13.
Drake assailed Vitali’s claim that he had done everything he could to help Tatjana, in light of his claim that she had stabbed herself in his car, either accidentally or on purpose. During cross-examination, she had asked him why he’d driven to Lumby and not Vernon Jubilee Hospital, to which he said he’d thought there was a hospital in Lumby. She’d asked him why he didn’t call 911, to which he said he’d never called 911 before.
“There’s only one reasonable inference to be drawn from Mr. Stefanski not calling 911, from Mr. Stefanski not stopping his car to get help, and from Mr. Stefanski never actually taking Tatjana to a hospital. And it is that Mr. Stefanski is the one who caused Tatiana’s injuries,” Drake said.
“Mr. Stefanski did not want to get Tatjana help. He wanted her dead.”
Drake spoke of inconsistencies between Vitali’s testimony and the physical evidence in the trial. She also spoke of inconsistencies between some of Vitali’s statements and ones he’d made previously.
She said according to his own testimony, his memory of what happened on April 13 was at times spotty or non-existent, while at other times he was able to offer an “incredibly detailed account” of what happened that day.
“His answers to nearly identical questions in cross-examination would change. When witnesses do this, lawyers often say that the evidence is self-serving. And what self-serving means is that a witness is more interested in trying to help themselves than they are in telling you the truth,” Drake said.
The prosecutor said Vitali gave at least three different versions of what happened during the 17 seconds between when Tatjana arrived at the top of her driveway and when Vitali pushed her into his car.
He’d previously told jurors he had “slightly” pushed Tatjana into his car, but Drake said when pressed, he agreed he had pushed her in.
“The only reasonable conclusion to draw as to why he pushed her in the car is that he intended to kill her in there. Why else would he have to climb into the car over her other than to keep her in that car against her will?” Drake said.
“His evidence about what happened in that car was confusing, it was illogical and it does not accord with the physical evidence. You should reject it in its entirety and it should not raise a reasonable doubt,” she told the jurors.
As for Vitali’s alleged confession to police, Drake said those words, “Yes, and I killed her, yes, she is dead,” could be “one of the few honest things you have heard Mr. Stefanski saying.”
Last week, the court heard that Vitali and his lawyer, Tony Lagemaat, had parted ways and that Vitali would be taking conduct of his own defence for the remainder of the trial.
Vitali is expected to give his closing arguments Thursday morning, June 25.