233063

Kelowna  

Interrogation shown in court

Just because they didn't throw the punch, doesn't necessarily mean they're not guilty of the assault.

The aggravated assault trial for Steven Kaplan and Kyle O'Brien continued in Kelowna's Supreme Court Wednesday, with the video of the RCMP's lengthy interrogation of Kaplan being played for the court.

Steven Kollie was convicted of aggravated assault for sucker punching Michael Martin outside of Sapphire Nightclub on Sept. 6, 2014, and is currently serving a five-year sentence.

The Crown alleges that, following two previous fights that night, Kaplan asked Kollie, a much larger man than the victim, to throw the punch. The Crown also believes Kaplan had asked O'Brien, a bouncer at Sapphire Nightclub, to remove Martin from the club, so the assault could take place.

During the interrogation, which took place on Oct. 20, 2014, Sgt. Cameron Holloway of the Kelowna RCMP tells Kaplan that, criminally speaking, it's “entirely irrelevant” that he didn't throw the punch.

Much of the interrogation focuses on Holloway asking Kaplan if he's a “big wheel” in Kelowna's criminal community.

“I can't understand how or why the bouncer would go in and grab this guy and bring him out and I don't understand why James (Kollie) would lay this guy out just because you point at him and say do it,” Sgt. Holloway said during the interrogation. “It doesn't make a lot of sense unless you're some kind of big wheel.”

In support of his theory, Holloway points to Kaplan being let in and out of the Liquid Zoo Lounge, bypassing security, prior to the incident, while being barred from other bars in town. 

During the interrogation, Holloway tells Kaplan that Kollie is a “bad guy” and is “affiliated with certain people in town.” Kaplan tells Holloway he had just met with Kollie that night at Social 242 Lounge.

Video surveillance in the area shows Kaplan and Kollie heading to Sapphire, just minutes after Martin entered the club. As Kollie waits in an alley, Kaplan approaches the bouncer, O'Brien, and talks briefly with him. O'Brien goes inside the bar, finds Martin, puts him in a chokehold and forcibly removes him from the bar.

With Martin now outside the club, Holloway says Kaplan gestures to O'Brien to keep an eye on Martin and goes back to the alley to find Kollie.

Kaplan goes back to the front of the bar and begins talking to Martin, as Kollie walks up. Kaplan points to Martin, and Kollie lands the punch, knocking him to the pavement, and fracturing his skull.

“I haven't seen a punch like that since Tyson used to fight,” Holloway says during the interrogation. “James (Kollie) pats Kyle (O'Brien) on the shoulder, you kind of give Kyle the thumbs up and you walk by. And this kid is in the hospital in a coma for 10 days, two weeks.”

A witness described the punch as "ungodly."

When Holloway asks why Kollie would want to get involved in Kaplan's business, Kaplan says he doesn't know. When Holloway asks if he had asked O'Brien to remove Martin from the bar, Kaplan says, “I really don't have anything to say.”

Holloway suggests to Kaplan that O'Brien, a “self-professed nerd,” may have been trying to “impress somebody, maybe you, who could be somebody.”

The trial is expected to wrap up Friday.  



More Kelowna News