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Kelowna  

Convict testifies in Ellis trial

When the attempted murder trial for Michael Edward Ellis resumed Thursday in Kelowna, a familiar face took the witness stand.

It was Ellis’ former co-accused, Shawn Wysynski, who is currently serving a nine-year sentence for his part in a police shootout and subsequent chase down Westside Road in 2012.

Ellis, Wysynski and Ashley Collins each faced over one dozen charges including attempted murder and various firearms offences after allegedly firing at police; Collins and Wysynski were sentenced in October.

Previous testimony from witnesses at the trial have pointed to Ellis as the driver and ringleader, but Wysynski testified today that was not the case.

Although more than two years have passed since the time of the offence, Wysynski appeared to recall the events quite clearly, barely hesitating as he repeated thoughts he had and phrases he said to Ellis, Collins and Joseph Elie. 

Elie, Wysynski's brother-in-law, jumped out of the moving vehicle soon after the first shots were fired at RCMP.

Wysynski testified that after being up for four or five days doing methamphetamine and heroin, Collins, Ellis, Elie and himself were in a McDonalds parking lot in West Kelowna preparing to collect on a drug debt.

He said the day before the chase, he had become suspicious that someone was following them, although Ellis and Elie didn't believe him.

As they departed McDonalds, first one and then a second unmarked police car began following them. Wysynski instructed Ellis to "start driving like a maniac" and to put the public in danger, saying he believed the police would choose to call off the chase.

After an undetermined distance and with the cars still behind them, Wysynski, who had been sitting in the front passenger seat told Elie, who was in the back, to change with him. Shortly afterward he started firing at the grill of the unmarked car in an effort to make them call off the chase.

After the first shots were fired, the two unmarked vehicles stopped and Elie bailed from the vehicle which was still travelling an estimated 70 km/h. 

Wysynski said Elie looked "like a cartoon" as he tried to run as fast as the van before cartwheeling down the side of the road. 

"I didn't see him jump out, but I saw him trying to run and I thought it was pretty funny," he said.

Wysynski's glee did not last, however – he was furious that Elie, a childhood friend, had bailed on him and said he threatened to shoot Ellis and Collins if they tried to flee also.

"If any of you other f***ers think you're faster than a bullet, try it," he said. "If you bail, I'm shooting."

The chase continued along Westside Road and included several carjackings and exchanges of gunfire with RCMP, eventually culminating in Ashley Collins getting shot in the abdomen, which resulted in the loss of a kidney and her unborn child.

Throughout his testimony Wysynski reiterated, that to his knowledge, Ellis never had a gun and only drove and paid attention to the road. 

"To be honest, I'm not going to hand someone a gun that I just basically threatened," Wysynski said. "[When I say] 'If you're gonna take off, I'm gonna shoot you', I'm not gonna hand them a gun."

However, in cross examination Crown prosecutor Murray Kaay quickly began to poke holes in Wysynski's version of the events.

During his trial, Wysynski had asked for a pre-sentence report which included an agreed upon statement of facts. In that statement, the driver of a PT Cruiser testified that Ellis also had a gun and threatened her with it.

Then Kaay got Wysynski to admit he didn't want to say anything that could build a case against Ellis, and didn't admit to doing the shooting in his own trial in order to mitigate his own sentence. 

The admissions were surprising but not particularly risky.

Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Evidence Act, what a witness says in one proceeding cannot be used against them in another proceeding, except to prove perjury or that they were lying under oath in court.



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