Banff murder suspect John Christopher Arrizza expressed apparent indifference when told the man he repeatedly stabbed may be dead, his Calgary trial heard Monday.
Jurors in Arrizza’s second-degree murder trial heard and watched in-car video of the accused after he was arrested at the Dancing Sasquatch bar and placed in an RCMP cruiser.
“Is he still alive?” Arrizza asked now-Cpl. Sheldon Silveira in the Aug. 5, 2022 video.
“Not sure yet. Yeah, he’s not doing well,” Silveira told him.
“I feel bad, but not really,” the accused said.
Arrizza, 24, is charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Ethan Enns-Goneau, 26, who was repeatedly stabbed inside and outside the basement men’s washroom at the Dancing Sasquatch on Banff Avenue.
Silveira told Crown prosecutor Patrick Bigg he arrived at the bar to find Arrizza subdued, face-down on the floor, and a badly injured Enns-Goneau being attended to nearby.
“I advised him he was under arrest for assault with a weapon,” Silveira said.
“He said ‘I f—– him up, I f—– him up’ and then he said ‘I did it,’” the officer told Bigg.
Silveira said he placed Arrizza in handcuffs and walked him from the bar to his waiting cruiser.
Arrizza showed signs of intoxication as he was being brought to the police car, the officer said.
“He had that wobble going … that stumble we encounter with people under the influence.”
Inside the cruiser Arrizza made several unprompted comments before the officer left the scene and drove him to the nearby detachment.
The accused seemed more concerned about his missing cellphone and wallet than his legal predicament.
“It sounds like you lost a couple things tonight,” Silveira said in response to Arrizza’s concerns.
“The bouncer said you already lost your wallet.”
“Yeah, but I pulled the knife, which maybe I shouldn’t have,” the accused said.
“But I definitely got scared when someone started grabbing me and pushing me up against the wall in the bathroom and I’m there alone,” he said.
Later Arrizza further discussed the altercation.
“So, I pulled out a weapon I never had any intention of using … because I was scared and I didn’t know what else to do.”
Video footage from the club shows Enns-Goneau heading to the bathroom area after he and friend Bobby Lavery arrived at the bar for a nightcap.
Just over a minute after entering the washroom Enns-Goneau is shoved into the hallway and repeatedly stabbed by Arrizza.
The trial before a Calgary Court of King’s Bench jury, continues on Tuesday.