2 weeks Ago By Kevin Martin
An “incredibly wasted” John Christopher Arrizza was incapable of forming the intent to murder fatal stabbing victim Ethan Enns-Goneau, his lawyer argued Thursday. Defence counsel Katherin Beyak said jurors should acquit Arrizza of murder, instead finding that his deadly attack on the Banff native amounted to manslaughter. But Crown prosecutor Patrick Bigg said Arrizza’s actions in stabbing his victim at least 11 times, four of which would have been deadly, showed he was capable of intending the consequences of his action.
In her final submissions before a Calgary Court of King’s Bench jury, Beyak played video clips from both the Dancing Sasquatch bar, where Arrizza attacked Enns-Goneau in a basement washroom, and in-car footage following his arrest by an RCMP officer. In surveillance footage from the bar, Arrizza can be seen bouncing off walls and twice falling while stumbling up a staircase in the minutes leading up to the deadly encounter. “There is nothing to suggest that Mr.
Arrizza is doing anything other than wandering around incredibly wasted,” Beyak said. The lawyer said even footage in which Arrizza can be seen stabbing Enns-Goneau several times after pushing him into the hallway outside the washroom, shows her client didn’t intend his victim to die. “The incident stops because Mr.
Arrizza stops. He’s not hauled off by the bouncers,” Beyak said. “If, in fact, he wanted Mr.
Enns-Goneau to die, or if he wanted to ensure he inflicted serious injuries on him he could have kept going.” Arrizza, 24, is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 5, 2022, death of Enns-Goneau, 26.
Enns-Goneau and a friend had decided to go to the Dancing Sasquatch for a nightcap after an evening of drinking and the victim went straight to the washroom upon arrival. Just over a minute later he was pushed out of the bathroom and finished off by Arrizza. Beyak said comments a slurring Arrizza made in the police car immediately after his arrest suggested her client was reacting to something Enns-Goneau did or said.
“He indicates he had been attacked,” Beyak said. “He was scared, he effectively tried to brandish the knife ..
. and Mr. Enns-Goneau proceeded to fight him anyway,” she said.
“Something occurred in that washroom that prompted a response from Mr. Arrizza.” But Bigg painted a different picture of the altercation between Arrizza and his unarmed victim.
Bigg said that while the accused appeared intoxicated by drugs or alcohol or both, he wasn’t in such an advanced state of intoxication that he couldn’t foresee the consequences of his attack on Enns-Goneau. “Your common sense tells you, you hold a knife, you stick it in somebody, this big of a knife,” he said, holding up the exhibit in court. “You intend the consequences.
” Bigg said the number of wounds and their location supported the Crown’s theory Arrizza murdered Enns-Goneau. “This shows a repetitive viciousness,” he said. “You do it as many times as in this case you intend those consequences unless that intoxication rises to a level you cannot appreciate that.
” Jurors were expected to begin deliberations late Thursday afternoon after getting final legal instructions from Justice Robert Hall. X:.
