With closing arguments complete, a judge is expected to delivery instructions to the jury Wednesday in the first-degree murder trial of Michael Clairoux and Lee Marrazzo.
The two masked men who killed Gregory Slewidge inside a marijuana grow-op made “one enormous mistake:” They wrongly believed old security cameras on the building were not working, a court heard Tuesday.
In his closing address, Crown attorney Matthew Humphreys said the cameras’ high-definition video offered conclusive evidence that Michael Clairoux and Lee Marrazzo were responsible for “the cowardly ambush and murder” of Slewidge on the afternoon of Sept. 23, 2020.
The two men are charged jointly with first-degree murder in the case, which has been heard in the Perth courthouse.
“It is unbiased and unflinching,” Humphreys said of the security footage. “The cameras captured all of the details Mr. Clairoux and Mr. Marrazzo failed to hide because they didn’t think it necessary.”
The men, he argued, would never have committed the crime in broad daylight had they suspected the cameras were operational.
Although the men in the video had their faces partially covered by medical masks, Humphreys said, it was clear from their exposed skin, hair, body types and other physical features that one man was the “spitting image” of Clairoux and the other of Marrazzo.
It’s the Crown’s theory that the two friends, Clairoux and Marrazzo, were hired by a member of the Red Devil’s motorcycle club to kill Slewidge, a former club member, to end some kind of personal feud.
Court has heard two men — one holding a length of yellow rope and the other with a gun — slipped into a rural industrial building on Scotch Corners Road in Beckwith Township on Sept. 23, 2020, and attacked Slewidge. The building housed a legal marijuana grow-op.
Evening Update
The following day, Slewidge’s body was found on the floor with the nylon rope wrapped three times around his neck and a knife in the middle of his back. He had $2,410 in his pocket.
Slewidge, 39, a father of a nine-year-old girl, was days away from becoming a full-patch member of Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
Lawyers for the defendants both suggested Slewidge may have been killed by the Hells Angels.
Humphreys told the jury evidence presented at the trial had established beyond a reasonable doubt that the man holding the yellow rope in the video, person number one, was Clairoux.
He highlighted similarities between photographs taken of Clairoux before and after the murder and of the man pictured in the security footage. Among other things, Humphreys said, they shared the same skin and hair colour, the same stature, body type, hairline, jawline and neck markings: a mole and freckle.
What’s more, he said, three pictures entered into evidence proved Clairoux owned the same baseball hat, advertising Tijuana Sweet Heat Tequila, worn by person number one.
Evidence also established, Humphrey said, that Clairoux owned the same kind of sneakers, key chain and
chrome-knuckle gloves worn by person number one.
During the two-month trial, Clairoux testified in his own defence and flatly denied being involved in the murder. He said he was in Ottawa, working in a wood shop, at the time.
But Clairoux admitted the killer in the security video was in possession of his key chain. He suggested the killer must have stolen, then returned his keys without his knowledge.
Humphreys called that explanation “preposterous” and urged the jury to reject Clairoux’s testimony as worthless.
The Crown attorney told court 11 pieces of evidence tied Marrazzo to the crime, including security video of the “unique Mohawk-style haircut” of person number two. That person had a Mohawk with bald spots on either side of his head, and a ring of dark hair, much like photos of Marrazzo from that time.
“Mr. Marrazzo’s hairstyle is a unique signature,” Humphreys argued.
Humphreys said Marrazzo and person number two also shared the same kind of beard and facial features, along with torn jeans and work boots tied to him through pictures and video entered into evidence.
What’s more, he said, Marrazzo owned a black Cadillac CTS, a model consistent with a car seen on security video from the murder scene.
DNA evidence drawn from the yellow rope also established a possible connection to Marrazzo, Humphreys said. He said the DNA evidence offered “a compelling connection” between Marrazzo and the murder scene, particularly when considered alongside all of the other evidence linking him to the crime.
Earlier on Tuesday, Marrazzo’s defence lawyer, Paolo Giancaterino, completed his final address, telling jurors that the Crown had failed to disprove his client’s alibi: that he was in Ottawa at the time of the murder.
Giancaterino noted that cellphone records, obtained by police, established that Marrazzo’s phone was in Ottawa, in the vicinity of Carp Road, on the afternoon Slewidge was killed.
In the months following the murder, Giancaterino noted, Marrazzo did not try to hide or clean his car, and continued his friendship with Clairoux even as police followed and surveilled the two.
“His behaviour is entirely consistent and supportive of his innocence,” Giancaterino argued.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Judge Brian Abrams was expected to deliver final instructions to the jury Wednesday.
