Victim involved in three fights in week before stabbing, court hears

Jurors heard Tuesday from a deceased friend of murder victim Patrice Gregoire during the trial of the Sault Ste. Marie man accused of stabbing and killing him two years ago.

Lawyer Ken Walker read an affidavit taken from Michael Yaroshuk, who died this summer, as the defence presented its case at Ronald Freeman's second-degree murder trial.

Yaroshuk indicated that he knew both men, and regularly socialized with Gregoire at Al's Corner Pub located in the Jamestown neighborhood.

He said he was involved with Gregoire in three fights in the week prior to the man's July 17, 2014 death, and assisted him in the altercations.

Yaroshuk described the third fight, which he said occurred two days before

Gregoire lost his life, in the same place two men fought with guys who were friends of a woman who stole Gregoire's wallet.

In the affidavit, he described the 46-year-old man known as Pat the Plumber, as a drinking buddy whose back he watched.

He also said he knew Freeman and Tanya Pearce from the bar, but indicated Freeman was not a friend of his.

Walker also filed a copy of Yaroshuk's six-page criminal record, which stretches from 1991 to June of this year and includes numerous convictions for assault, threatening and assault with a weapon.

Freeman, 48, has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and a count of assaulting Pearce.

Walker, who told the jury in his opening address that "this is a case of self-defence," also read in a statement from Victoria Childs, a resident of the apartment building at 181 James St., where Freeman also lived.

She indicated that she knew Gregoire from Al's and that a week before the July 17 altercation with Freeman, he had black eye, and when she asked what had happened, he told her "I got into a fight."

On Tuesday, the court also heard a tape of a frantic call a teen made to 911 after he saw "two men on top of each other" outside his apartment at 181 James St.

"My upstairs' neighbour's dead . . . he's getting stabbed . . .Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God,"  the young man told the emergency operator.

When he testified, the young man told Walker he thought his neighbour was dying, was getting killed because of all the blood he could see.

Freeman, a smaller guy, was on the bottom and the guy on top was punching him in the head, and they were squirming around, the young man said.

The teen described the guy on top as "zombied out,"  and "twisted (crazy)," because he wasn't answering or listening to people who were telling him to get off of Freeman.

During cross-examination by prosecutor Dana Peterson, he agreed he had earlier described the two men as "sandwiched together and wriggling around" when he first saw them before going to call 911.

The assistant Crown attorney referred to his testimony at the June 2015 preliminary hearing, where he said he didn't know who was on the top or bottom.

He agreed that when he went back outside after calling 911, he saw Freeman's girlfriend there and that's when he realized Ron was involved in the fight.

Dr. Robert Mahoney took care of Freeman after he was admitted to Sault Area Hospital for injuries, which were initially treated in the emergency department on the evening of July 17.

He said when he examined Freeman on the following morning, his left eye was swollen shut, he had injuries to his face and a cast on his right forearm and hand.

Freeman also had a collapsed lung which was related to the fractured ribs he had sustained.