Crying teen recalls 13-year-old girl's last night

A 13-year-old girl was slain because she "was the chosen one," a crying teenage witnesstestified Wednesday in an Edmonton courtroom.

Michael Briscoe, 36, and Joseph Laboucan, 21, areon trial forthe kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and first-degree murder of Nina Courtepatte.

The 13-year-old girl's bruised and bloody body was found on the Edmonton Springs Golf Course in April 2005.

The youngwitness,a friend of Courtepatte who can't legally be named, testified that when she asked whyCourtepatte had been attacked,Laboucan told her: "She was the chosen one."

The two friendsmet up with Laboucan, Briscoe and three teenagers at West Edmonton Mall and drove to what they were told would be a bush party, she testified.

They ended up at a deserted grassy area, where one of the female teenagers "started talking about a ritual and how they kill someone and bring them back from the dead," she testified.

"[She] goes up to Nina and hits her in the back with something that looks like a wrench," she said.

"Nina fell to the ground and yelled out: 'Why are you doing this?'"

Witness taken back to car

Briscoe then pinned Courtepatte down on the ground and told her to shut up, the girl recalled in court. Thewitnesssaid shewastaken back to the car by the teenage girlwho attacked Courtepatte.

When the others returned to the car without Courtepatte, Laboucan was covered in blood, the witness said.

She told the court she asked "Where's Nina?"and a male teenager with the group told her he beat Courtepatte up and made her run home naked.

One of the other girls took two blood-covered knives out of a backpack, shesaid, andLaboucan told her not to tell anyone about what happened.

5people charged in Courtepatte's death

Briscoe and Laboucan are being tried before a judge alone in Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench. The trial is expected to last a month.

Theyare among five people charged with the girl's murder, but unlike the other three, they were adults at the time of her death.

A 19-year-old man has already pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Two young women, ages 17 and 19, are charged with kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and first-degree murder, but haven't yet come to trial. The trio can't be named under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.