Closing arguments were made Thursday at the first-degree murder trial of Shane Wood, with the Crown maintaining it was a planned killing and Wood's lawyer saying it was self-defence.
Wood, 39, is charged with killing his uncle, 50-year-old Paul Curry, at Curry’s Manitoba Street home.
Court heard the pair had a turbulent personal and business relationship and had had a falling out a year earlier.
“It wasn’t an amicable split,” said Crown attorney David Rows.
The court heard earlier in the trial that the pair got into an argument on the night Curry died, Sept. 16, 2013, and both men had been drinking. The house had been set ablaze and Curry’s body was found inside.
Wood testified that when he came out of the bathroom, Curry was lighting some papers on fire and then attacked him with a weapon, cutting his hand. He said Curry was coming at him so Wood smashed a beer bottle over his head.
Prior to attending Curry’s home, Wood had some alarming posts on Facebook.
“The reason he (Wood) went so late at night was because he didn’t want Paul Curry to know what he was doing. Hoping to catch him when he was drunk or asleep,” Rows said.
He called Wood’s earlier testimony, a web of lies that was designed to hide the truth.
“The accused testified that he left Paul Curry who was spitting up blood on a burning bed. The accused wasn’t provoked; he was looking for violence," Rows said.
The jury had heard that Curry suffered multiple facial fractures and wounds to his neck and back.
The defence says Wood had no choice.
“What would you do to defend yourself?” asked defence lawyer Damon Hardy.
Hardy said if his client planned to kill, he wouldn’t do it by smashing beer bottles over Curry’s head.
Shane grabbed whatever he could. It was desperation for him to grab the beer bottles. Shane Wood was protecting himself from a potentially deadly attack.”
Wood is also charged with arson and causing an indignity to a dead body
The matter is adjourned until Monday when Justice Peter Hockin will give his charge to the jury.
