WINNIPEG -- In its closing arguments, the Crown says 34-year-old Ricardo Hibi was stabbed to death 12 seconds after answering his door by someone who intended to kill.
A jury heard closing arguments on Tuesday in the trial of 23-year-old Kane Moar, who is accused of second-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty. The charges have not been proven in court.
“(Kane Moar) went straight to 622 McGee Street...with two things – a knife and a purpose and Ricardo Hibi was getting in the way of that purpose,” prosecutor Monique Cam said Tuesday.
Hibi, 34, was stabbed to death inside the foster home he ran for boys on McGee Street in the city’s Daniel McIntyre neighbourhood. The Crown never presented a motive to the jury.
On Tuesday, Cam said Moar was looking for his sister’s then-boyfriend on December 17, 2018. He lived at the foster home on McGee Street.
The Crown said when Moar showed up at the house, Hibi wouldn’t let him in. A witness who was on the phone with Hibi when he was attacked testified she heard him say, “Hey man this isn’t your house. Get out of my house.”
Cam repeated Hibi’s last words in her closing arguments, saying “he was killed after doing something routine, closing the front door of his house.”
Hibi had set up cameras inside the foster home. Surveillance video played in court shows him answering the door, then falling to the ground of his foyer after a confrontation, before shutting the front door.
Cameras also captured surveillance video from outside the foster home. It shows a man in a black winter jacket walking up to the foster home.
The Crown said Moar was wearing a black winter jacket when he was arrested.
"Kane Moar used a knife and stabbed an innocent man three times. He then ran away and bragged about it. He laughed about it,” Cam told the jury.
In a police interview recorded just hours after Hibi’s death, Moar’s sister Trinity told investigators her brother came to her house and said he just “messed up” an Asian guy.
Trinity, 20, took the stand last week, but said she had no memory of the police interview because she was on anti-depressants.
Moar’s defence pointed to several inconsistencies in her statements to police.
In his closing arguments, Moar’s defence lawyer Evan Roitenberg said investigators may have overlooked someone.
A forensic specialist testified bloodstains found on the black winter jacket matched Moar and Kane’s DNA.
But not all samples found the coat could be identified.
“There is a third person’s DNA,” Roitenberg told the jury. “The DNA of (Trinity’s boyfriend) was never tested."
Roitenberg alleged that Trinity’s then-boyfriend was physically abusive towards her and had a criminal record for “stabbing someone in the head.”
The jury is expected to begin deliberating Wednesday.