Deliberations lasted about 10 hours before convicting John Christopher Arrizza of second-degree murder in the Aug. 5, 2022, killing of Ethan Enns-Goneau
Confessed killer John Christopher Arrizza was not so intoxicated he couldn’t form the intent to commit murder when he fatally stabbed a man in a Banff nightclub washroom, a jury ruled Friday.
Arrizza showed no outward emotion as the jury foreperson read the verdict of guilty.
A slight sigh of relief could be heard in the courtroom from a large contingent of supporters of the deceased.
Beyak had argued her client was too intoxicated to form either of those intentions required for the Crown to prove an accused guilty of murder.
She had sought a conviction on the reduced charge of manslaughter.
But jurors agreed with Crown prosecutor Patrick Bigg that Arrizza, who was intoxicated on drugs, alcohol, or both, was still capable of knowing his assault on the deceased would be deadly.
Enns-Goneau and his friend Bobby Lavery had been out for a night on the town when they stopped into the Dancing Sasquatch for a nightcap.
When they entered, Enns-Goneau headed to the bathroom while Lavery went upstairs to the bar area.
Just over a minute later the footage showed Arrizza pushing Enns-Goneau out of the men’s room and into the hall and stabbing him three times. The victim was stabbed inside the washroom and off-camera another eight times.
When a bouncer arrived to take Arrizza away Enns-Goneau stood briefly in the hallway before collapsing to the floor.
Shortly after his arrest, Arrizza was place in the back of an RCMP cruiser where an in-car camera captured comments he made to Cpl. Sheldon Silveira.
At one point, Arrizza asked himself: “Why didn’t I just start punching him? ‘Cause I was scared. ‘Cause I was scared. Will you put that in my statement? I was scared.”
Bigg noted a crucial piece of evidence in the case came from Enns-Goneau’s autopsy showing the victim had only 20 mL of urine in his bladder, meaning he would have used the facilities in the 78 seconds he was in the washroom.
Arrizza, who remains in custody, will be sentenced at a later date.