North Okanagan murder suspect Vitali Stefanski made his closing submissions in his own B.C. Supreme Court trial Thursday, when he maintained his innocence while offering a scattered account of the leadup to his ex-wife’s death, and told jurors why he should believed instead of the Crown.
Vitali pleaded not-guilty last month to second-degree murder in relation to the death of ex-wife Tatjana Stefanski, whose body was found with seven stab wounds and more than a dozen other sharp-force injuries down an embankment off a rural logging road outside of Lumby April 14, 2024.
Vitali was previously represented by defence lawyer Tony Lagemaat, but jurors learned last week that the two had parted ways and Vitali would be representing himself for the remainder of the trial.
That quirk in the proceedings set up a lengthy and winding closing argument from Vitali at the Kamloops courthouse June 25, wherein he attempted to show that the Crown had not proven beyond reasonable doubt that he was guilty of killing Tatjana.
“I’m not guilty,” Vitali said after claiming the RCMP made “the biggest mistakes” in their investigation.
The court previously heard Vitali claim that Tatjana had stabbed herself with his fishing knife while in his car on April 13, the last day she was seen alive. Vitali had admitted to pushing her into his vehicle and climbing over her through the passenger seat.
On Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Laura Drake made closing arguments, saying jurors should not believe Vitali’s assertion that Tatjana killed herself, calling this an “insult to logic, common sense and human experience.”
Vitali defended his position Thursday that Tatjana had stabbed herself while twisting around in his car with the passenger seat reclined. He added that he feared for his own safety while this was going on.
“I would just say, she would stab me to death if I would do something,” he said.
At various times, Vitali asserted there was no evidence against him that he had killed Tatjana.
“There was no evidence of physical assault or aggressive behaviour,” he said at one point.
Vitali again maintained that on April 14 — when he’d been taken to hospital by police with a small, self-inflicted stab wound after he’d been arrested following his alleged confession to the murder — he’d still held out hope that Tatjana was alive, this after he’d claimed her unresponsive body had slid out of his car, through his grasp and down the embankment the day before.
On Wednesday Drake had called this assertion “incredible,” meaning the Crown’s position is that it beggars belief that Vitali then supposed his ex-wife was still alive. Instead, the Crown asserted that Vitali knew she was dead because he had killed her, as he had wanted to.
The trial previously heard from two Mounties that Vitali had confessed to the crime just prior to their arresting him, after he’d emerged shoeless and dishevelled from the forest along Mabel Lake Road, near where his bloodied Audi had just been found. His words, according to the Mounties, had been, “Yes, she is dead, yes, I killed her.”
As he’d done before, Vitali denied ever saying this.
“I never said that. That statement does not exist, so that does not exist, and he has no proof that it does exist,” Vitali said, referring to the police officer’s testimony.
He pointed out that one of the officers had testified that he did not write down the brief conversation and alleged confession in his notebook.
Drake told the court Wednesday that the only reasonable conclusion to be drawn from the evidence is that Vitali stabbed his ex-wife to death, and that his explanations should not be believed because they are nonsensical.
Vitali said Thursday that the jury should “reject” the Crown’s assertion, because “there’s no evidence.”
The Crown, in its closing arguments, had meticulously gone through the physical evidence of the trial.
Vitali’s closing arguments saw him show the jury a number of exhibit photos another time. He spent considerable time talking about the bent knife, which was one of the exhibits, and claiming questions weren’t asked during the trial as to why or to what degree the knife was bent.