Cory Van Gilder broke down and sobbed on the witness stand Thursday when he remembered delivering the punch that killed a man outside a Kelowna Cactus Club.
“He wasn’t stopping, he was coming toward the walkway, and headed toward three younger kids,” said Van Gilder, who told jurors of his memory of Zachary Gaudette’s actions before the fatal altercation.
“I took a couple steps toward him and as soon as he turned toward me, I hit him.”
It was a punch that ruptured a blood vessel and caused Gaudette a brain bleed that turned fatal in the days that followed.
Jurors in the manslaughter case looking at the events of Feb. 17, 2016 were asked to leave the courtroom after Van Gilder succumbed to tears, allowing him time to compose himself.
Ten minutes later they returned and Van Gilder continued with testimony in his own defence.
By his account Gaudette was crazy, aggravated, angry and dangerous.
“He said ‘I will fight all of you or any one of you’ — he repeated himself,” said Van Gilder, adding that Gaudette’s arms were flailing and he had thrown his jacket and backpack down at the corner of Highway 97, seemingly to leave him unencumbered for a confrontation.
“He was very loud and I could hear him over the traffic.”.
Related: For past stories on this trial click here.
The distance between the intersection and the restaurant was traversed in no time, and according to Van Gilder, Gaudette had focused his anger on the group outside the restaurant.
He asked around to see if anyone knew him, and they didn’t. Then a friend’s girlfriend walked toward Gaudette and that concerned him, so he followed for a moment and then stepped in front of her.
She was called back by her boyfriend and Gaudette advanced toward the group of “kids,” said Van Gilder, speaking of the men in their early 20s.
He walked toward Gaudette, and the two “locked eyes” and that’s when he hit him.
He didn’t think he’d hit him hard enough to cause harm, nor did he intend to, he told jurors. He and friends went to another restaurant afterward, thinking that he’d just ended a potentially dangerous situation.
Days later when he found out that Gaudette had died “his heart sank.”
On cross examination, Crown counsel Andrew Vandersluys asked Van Gilder to explain why he didn’t leave or why he didn’t do something to defuse the situation.
Van Gilder had competed in JiuJitsu competitions in 2010, and Vandersluys pointed out that’s a sport where skills in disarming an assailant are taught.
Gaudette said he wasn’t sure if there was a weapon, and that was why he just hit him.
Whether Gaudette had a weapon was the focus of much of Tuesday’s portion of the trial.
Evidence in the manslaughter trial has concluded and the jury is likely to start deliberations on Monday.
@KelownaNewsKat
kmichaels@kelownacapnews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.