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There had been “some confrontational history” between two local men at the centre of a murder trial underway at Windsor’s Superior Court of Justice building.
But the friction between Thomas ‘TJ’ McIntyre and Ryan Taylor was in the past, 12 jurors heard in the prosecution’s opening Wednesday at the trial before Superior Court of Justice Renee Pomerance.
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Regardless of that past, when McIntyre entered Seminole Street Bar & Grill shortly after midnight on Sept. 23, 2020, he was unaware there’d been a brief “physical confrontation” inside between Taylor and a third man just two minutes earlier.
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Assistant Crown attorney Andrew Telford-Keogh told jurors they will hear testimony that there were others present but that there was “no contact” in the bar between Taylor and McIntyre. A short time later, Taylor was told by staff to leave.
He had a cigarette outside as he departed on foot. Less than a minute later, McIntyre also exited the bar and proceeded on foot in the same eastbound direction down Seminole.
Telford-Keogh said the prosecution will rely on video surveillance and testimony from witnesses inside and outside the bar, as well as other area security footage, to prove what happened before and immediately after the men’s departures.
The Crown alleges Taylor attacked McIntyre, 38, a father of four, who then died in hospital four days later from severe head injuries.
Taylor, now 35, is on trial for second-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty.
Telford-Keogh said in his opening address to the jury that captured video surveillance will show that McIntyre came running at Taylor and both men dropped to the ground at the intersection of Seminole Street and Tourangeau Road, a short distance from the bar.
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“After 16 seconds, Mr. Taylor gets up and walks away. TJ remains on the ground,” he said, referring to the name family and friends used for McIntyre.
Telford-Keogh said one of the Crown’s witnesses will testify they saw one man jump on the other male and then proceed to punch him in the head, with the individual on the receiving end not moving as he was being punched.
The witness, he added, will testify that “the head of the male on the ground was bouncing off the sidewalk.”
The Crown’s first witness on Wednesday, Const. John LaSorda, a member of the Windsor Police Service’s forensic identification unit at the time, testified he was dispatched to Windsor Regional Hospital’s Ouellette campus to take photos of the victim of “a serious attack.”
LaSorda said McIntyre was bandaged in a bed, conscious and able to communicate, but “he seemed lethargic, relatively unresponsive.”
In response to his questions, LaSorda said McIntyre only gave either delayed, single-word utterances or “noises.”
McIntyre would die four days later. Telford-Keogh said two forensic pathologists will testify at the trial and describe the cause of death as “blunt force trauma” with McIntyre having suffered a fractured skull and “significant brain injury.”
The trial in scheduled for three weeks.
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