Accused feared for his life after fatal stabbing of 17-year-old

The night after a 17-year-old Hamilton boy was fatally stabbed, Dawson Farr was so scared for his safety he didn't go home, court heard Friday.

Farr, who was 18 at the time, is on trial for manslaughter. The teen victim cannot be named because of a publication ban. Farr's co-accused, Tae Yoon (Dan) Park, is set to be trial separately.

Like several witnesses, Patrick Bommarito was a friend of both Farr and Park. They all worked at an Ancaster restaurant.

The 23-year-old testified Friday he was at the house where Farr and Park and two other friends lived on Swallow Crescent earlier in the day on Dec. 7, 2018. Everyone except for Park was scheduled to work that night. Before work, Park, Farr and Joseph Hautamaki went out.

Court previously heard Farr was supposed to meet with the 17-year-old victim and his friend, Jacob Vogl, near Bruleville Park to sell them about 14 grams of cocaine. Unbeknownst to Farr, the victim and his friends had a plan to rob him. In the midst of this robbery, the 17-year-old was stabbed twice in the chest. Farr and Park ran.

At some point that night, Bommarito said Farr told him what happened.

Farr said that after he had handed the other party (the drugs) ... they had locked the doors and produced what looked like a handgun," Bommarito said.

Did Farr tell you what he did? asked assistant Crown attorney David King.

Yes," Bommarito said. He said he stabbed one of them."

On cross-examination, defence lawyer Jeffrey Manishen asked whether both Park and Farr were clear that this was self defence.

Yes," Bommarito answered.

Bommarito was played two surveillance video clips from the back of the restaurant that night. The first showed Bommarito arriving in his car, which Park drove off in. The second showed Bommarito, Park and Farr leaving later that night.

They made two trips, he said. The first was to a friend of Park's downtown to ask about Farr getting a lawyer, and the second was to another friend of Park's near St. Catharines where Farr stayed the night.

Dawson felt like he shouldn't go back to the house, that he would be in danger," he said.

The next day he and Park returned to pick Farr up and took him to a Tim Hortons where he met his parents and then turned himself in at the Mountain station, he said.

The trial resumes Tuesday.

Nicole O'Reilly is a Hamilton-based reporter covering crime and justice for The Spectator. Reach her via email: noreilly@thespec.com