Murder trial begins for downtown Tim Hortons shooting of Tyler Johnson

The bars were closed and the partygoers had cleared when Amanda Marucci struck up a conversation with a handsome man outside a restaurant in Hess Village in late November 2013.

It was around 2:30 a.m. and the then-19-year-old, fresh off a girls' night out, was bound for a cab that would take her to a local after-hours club. She wanted the friendly man to join her. He agreed.

We exchanged numbers, he said he'd meet me there and I got in the cab," Marucci testified Wednesday.

An hour passed before Marucci began blowing up" the man's phone, calling and texting him to no avail.

He never answered," she recalled.

That's because he was dead.

Tyler Johnson was shot and killed outside the Tim Hortons at King and Caroline streets in the early hours of Nov. 30, 2013, collapsing in the coffee shop's vestibule as a bullet wound to his chest gushed out blood.

Marucci was the second of four people to testify in the murder trial of Chad Davidson, accused of first-degree murder in the death of the Johnson. He has pleaded not guilty.

The trial began Wednesday with Crown attorney Cheryl Gzik delivering her opening address to a 14-member jury. The address is not evidence, but rather a summary of what the Crown expects the jury will hear.

While Davidson was joined by three other men in the parking lot where Johnson died - and the gun used to kill the victim has never been found - Gzik told the jury there is little doubt about who cut the former McMaster University student's life short.

The Crown will prove that one person shot Tyler," she said, and the Crown will prove that this person is Chad Davidson."

Among the key pieces of evidence the Crown will present during trial include surveillance footage, cellphone records and witness testimony that pin Davidson at the centre of the crime, Gzik said.

The jury heard Davidson and his girlfriend left their home on the Mountain just before 3 a.m. on the night of the murder, driving a Jeep Liberty to the parking lot outside the Tim Hortons near Hess Village.

Once there, Davidson gets out of the vehicle and enters the passenger seat of another car, a Jaguar, that's occupied by brothers Josh and Brandon Barreira. The trio take a quick drive, looping around the block before returning to the lot.

Video surveillance footage captures the men milling about the pita shop next to the Tim Hortons. Minutes later, Gzik told the jury, they approached Johnson and Davidson shot him in the chest.

The men fled before Johnson stumbled to the Tim Hortons and collapsed in between a pair of side doors.

The jury heard testimony from a Tim Hortons worker who spoke of the chaotic scene that followed Johnson's collapse.

I was holding his hand, telling him to hang in there and stay with me," Leslie Hetherington recalled, noting Johnson's distressed friend, Justin Moore, was alongside her as they waited for first responders. But he wasn't responding to me ... His eyes weren't able to focus."

A forensic pathologist testified Johnson, 30, died via single gunshot wound to his chest, with the bullet travelling from his heart to his lungs.

At issue for the jury, beyond identifying who shot Johnson, is to determine whether Davidson deliberately planned the murder.

The trial resumes Thursday.

Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com