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Witness: 'He was set up'

Defence lawyer Michael Patterson went after his own witness on the stand Tuesday during the Penticton Supreme Court trial of Cody Wilson.

Wilson is charged with four firearms offences in connection to an incident in the Denny’s parking lot on Oct. 7, 2016.

Police pulled Wilson out of his truck that afternoon, arresting him with two handguns after receiving a phone call from a distraught woman in the bathroom of the restaurant. Police found a gun in his front pocket, and one under the front passenger seat.

The 911 caller and Wilson’s girlfriend at the time, took the stand Tuesday morning.

She testified Wilson had given her a ride to Penticton from their home in Princeton. Both were addicted to methamphetamine at the time, and when she went into the Denny’s washroom, she called the police on Wilson “out of paranoia.”

Reading from a letter she sent to RCMP victim services months after the arrest, she walked back the statement she provided to the police.

“If it wasn’t for the drugs, these things would have never happened. Cody is a non-violent person. He was always a responsible gun owner and has always been a hard-working polite young man,” she read.

“If it wasn’t for the paranoia of using illegal substances, I would have never been in fear of Cody Wilson. The day he was arrested, he was set up.”

“(Another witness) bribed me with drugs to call the cops and get Cody arrested. I can’t keep living every day in guilt as he sits in jail,” she continued.

Patterson pressed her for what she meant about “set up,” asking her if she placed the handgun under the truck seat where officers found it.

“I don’t feel comfortable answering that question,” she responded.

When Judge David Crossin forced an answer, she replied she did not plant the gun.

She later tried to explain the 911 call as a drug-addled plot to protect her children from a man besides Wilson, and apologized for getting Wilson involved.

“As far fetched as it sounds, I don’t really know how to explain it,” she said.

She testified that beyond making the 911 call, she did nothing to harm Wilson.

During cross examination, Crown prosecutor Andrew Vandersluys presented her with contradictions between the evidence she provided at the preliminary inquiry and during trial.

Vandersluys noted that at the preliminary inquiry she testified Wilson had told her he had a gun in his front pocket before she made the 911 call.

Earlier Tuesday, she stated she had no idea there were any guns in the truck before she made the call to police.

“On Oct. 7, 2016 you knew that Mr. Wilson had a gun in his pocket because he told you, correct?” Vandersluys asked.

“I don’t know how to answer that question,” she replied.

The defence is expected to wrap up its case this week.



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