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Man accused of throwing fatal punch in Burnaby Starbucks testifies he was defending himself

As 22-year-old Michael Page-Vincelli lay unconscious with a fractured skull on the floor of a North Burnaby Starbucks on July 12, 2017, the man who punched him out quickly left the store with his girlfriend and carried on with a to-do list he had bee
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Lawrence Sharpe arrives at B.C. Supreme Court during his manslaughter trial earlier this year. PHOTO BY Cornelia Naylor

As 22-year-old Michael Page-Vincelli lay unconscious with a fractured skull on the floor of a North Burnaby Starbucks on July 12, 2017, the man who punched him out quickly left the store with his girlfriend and carried on with a to-do list he had been working on that day, according to testimony in B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday.

Lawrence Sharpe and Oldouz Pournouruz are on trial for manslaughter in Page-Vincelli’s death.

Sharpe testified Wednesday.

On the afternoon of July 12, 2017, he said he had left Pournouruz waiting in her car in front of the Kensington Square Royal Bank while he ducked inside to get some help filling out a certified cheque.

 

‘Scared out of her mind’

A short time later, however, Pournouruz had come into the bank and told him a man had thrown a cigarette on her while she was in her car.

She had shown Sharpe a small burn mark on her shirt, he said.

Initially, he hadn’t wanted to deal with what he described as “nonsense” because he had a list of things to do that day, but Pournouruz had “looked scared out of her mind,” he said.

Sharpe said he had gone with her to the Starbucks next door to look for Page-Vincelli only to find out what had happened and maybe ask for an apology so there wouldn’t be any trouble between Pournouruz and Page-Vincelli in the future.

When he got into the Starbucks, however, he said Page-Vincelli had taken steps toward him with an “unnatural look in his eyes” and appeared to raise his fisted hands.

“I was thinking I was going to be punched in the face,” Sharpe said. “My reaction was to hit him.”

Sharpe had given a similar account to an undercover police officer planted with him in the Burnaby RCMP cells after his arrest.

“He got too close, so I just socked him,” Sharpe told the officer, according to a transcript read out in court.

During cross-examination, however, Crown prosecutor Colleen Smith showed Sharpe security video of the punch, and he acknowledged it showed Page-Vincelli had been eating a bag chips and hadn’t taken steps towards him when he hit him in the head.

Smith also reminded Sharpe he had told police numerous times Page-Vincelli had looked like he “didn’t have a care in the world” before he hit him.

No words were exchanged between the two men before the punch, according to Sharpe.

 

‘Just in shock’

The video shows Pournouruz enter the Starbucks ahead of Sharpe and point at Page-Vincelli right before the punch.

She is charged with manslaughter for encouraging the blow, but Sharpe denied any suggestion from Smith that his girlfriend had encouraged him to punch Page-Vincelli.

Pournouruz and Page-Vincelli had gotten into an argument in front of the RBC, during which both had yelled and sworn at each other, according to witnesses.

One witness said she had seen the pair throw a cigarette butt back and forth at each other about four times.

A Next Blue brand butt was recovered at the scene and found to have both their DNA on it.

Sharpe told the court Next Blue was the brand smoked by him and Pournouruz.

Cigarettes recovered from Page-Vincelli’s pocket, meanwhile, were Canadian Classics.

Sharpe said he hadn’t known about Pournouruz and Page-Vincelli’s argument outside the RBC until after he punched the 22-year-old.

All Pournouruz had told him, he said, was that a man had thrown a burning cigarette at her.

“I didn’t know they were going at it like that,” he said.

After the punch, the security video shows Sharpe briefly look at Page-Vincelli on the ground and then quickly exit the Starbucks with Pournouruz.

“I was just in shock,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do, honestly. I didn’t know what to do. It just seemed like the natural thing to do. I know that sounds weird.”

After they left the coffee shop, Sharpe said the couple had gotten into the car and gone to a dollar store.

“We had a list of things to do that day and heading to the dollar store was one of them,” he said.

Sharpe said the couple didn’t find out until two days later, when police came to their Burnaby apartment, that Page-Vincelli never regained consciousness and died of his injuries.

The Crown’s cross-examination of Sharpe continues today (Thursday).