Defence floats alternative murder suspect to jury in Opassinis trial
I'm going to suggest ... that you were going to collect $4,000 from Mikey for a drug debt," said the lawyer.
Not true, that's a lie," replied the man on the witness stand.
And Mikey yelled out, I'm not scared of you,' and while trying to stifle Mikey in the bathroom, you applied force to his neck."
Absolutely not. I never touched Mikey."
The man on the stand Thursday before a jury at John Sopinka Courthouse was not George Opassinis, who is charged with second-degree murder in the 2018 death of Michel Pilon - Mikey" to friends.
Instead, it was a man named Marek Dirda testifying, as Opassinis' defence counsel Barry Fox offered him up to the jury as the one who strangled Pilon to death.
Dirda, who visited Pilon the night of the homicide, is currently incarcerated in Barton Street jail for breaching probation related to a drug possession conviction.
Dirda's criminal record includes forceable confinement and assault with a weapon - convictions that Fox dilated upon at length before the jury.
I wouldn't want to get on your bad side," said the defence lawyer.
I help people, I don't hurt people," replied Dirda, who said he often tried to help Pilon, a 97-pound, 53-year-old man who often used a wheelchair.
I helped him with food, cigarettes, anything he needed, he asked me and I did my best ... He said he was always happy to see me come around."
Fox referenced a statement made to police by an informant nine months after the homicide, who claimed that Dirda had bragged" in jail about having killed Pilon.
That is a lie," said Dirda, who spoke with a thick Central European accent. Dirda grew up in the Czech Republic before immigrating to Canada in 1997.
You also bragged (to the informant) about killing people in your home country," Fox said.
Dirda laughed, and replied: My home country? I was 10 years old."
The theory that Dirda and not Opassinis killed Pilon was raised in court with a second witness, Hailey McVicar, who dated Dirda and was also in the apartment on Pilon's last night alive.
McVicar, like Dirda, said Pilon was uninjured when they left him.
The jury heard the McVicar is currently facing a charge of first-degree murder for a 2020 shooting homicide in Brampton.
The trial continues Monday.
Jon Wells is a Hamilton-based reporter and feature writer for The Spectator. Reach him via email: jwells@thespec.com