At the end of his work day, drywaller Paul Sawatzky wanted a sandwich and a $40 hit of cocaine.
Instead he found himself at the centre of an apparent turf war between rival drug dealers — a war that ended with one man lying dead on the tarmac outside a Hog’s Back-area strip mall with a single bullet to his heart.
Eriklit Musollari, 24, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting death of 31-year-old Peyman Hatami in March 2012.
He is being tried by a jury.
In a summary at the start of the trial Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Julie Scott said Sawatzky had tried to contact his regular dealer, who wasn’t available but who, instead, put him in contact with Musollari.
The two arranged to meet at the Dynes Road strip mall, where a hungry Sawatzky arrived in his burgundy Buick. After buying a swich, he went back to his car waited for Musollari.
Musollari pulled alongside Sawatzky ‘s car got into the Buick’s front passenger seat. As the two were doing their drug deal, another man appeared at the Buick’s partially opened window , according to Scott, demed Musollari’s cellphones.
“I told you not to deal here,” the man allegedly told Musollari before allegedly throwing punches at him.
When Sawatzky attempted to interject in an effort to get Musollari out of his car, he was allegedly told to “shut up mind your own business.”
Then Hatami appeared on the scene , said Scott, Sawatzky heard a “deafening sound” Hatami fell. The blast shattered the car window.
“There was nothing that could be done to save (Hatami),” she said.
Musollari the man who had been deming his cellphones fled, Sawatzky eventually went to the police.
Tests on a hgun found later in the yard of a neighbouring townhouse yielded Musollari’s DNA.
Musollari turned himself in to police several days later, shortly after a Canada-wide warrant was issued for his arrest.
The trial, which continues on Wednesday, is expected to last three weeks.