Witness recalls seeing accused and victim just after fatal stabbing in Fort Good Hope

During the fourth day of the murder trial of a Fort Good Hope man, a witness said she saw the accused near the victim as he fell to the ground suffering from fatal stab wounds.

Marissa McNeely spent hours testifying Thursday in the N.W.T. Supreme Court trial of her cousin, Colten McNeely. McNeely is accused of second-degree murder in the Sept. 3, 2017 death of Lloyd Edgi.

Marissa McNeely was at a party at her cousin's shack in the hours before Edgi died. She said Edgi arrived at the party and learned from someone there that his common-law spouse, Jeanette Kakfwi, had left with Colten McNeely. She said Edgi became angry and aggressive.

Marissa McNeely said she and a friend tried to stop Edgi as he walked toward the front door of a nearby house where he believed his spouse had gone with Colten McNeely.

She said Colten came out the front door as Edgi arrived and tried to go inside.

"Colten was stopping him," said Marissa. "He said Jeanette had left."

She said Edgi head-butted Colten and punched him in the stomach. He then pulled him down the stairs and the two continued fighting on the ground. Earlier in the trial the defence repeatedly noted the size difference between the two men. Edgi was about six feet tall and weighed about 200 pounds. Colten McNeely is about 5 foot 6 and, at the time, weighed about 120 or 130 pounds.

Marissa McNeely said she saw a vehicle backing up nearby. "I told Lloyd Jeanette might be in that truck, so they would stop fighting," she testified.

She said Edgi started walking away but McNeely said something and he returned and threw him up against a vehicle parked in the driveway.

'Didn't do anything'

Marissa McNeely testified Edgi eventually left, leaving Colten McNeely bleeding from the nose. Marissa said she and her friend tried to lead Colten back to the shack to calm things down, but when she looked back he was gone.

As she and her friend walked toward the quad they had arrived on, Marissa said through the darkness she heard Colten call out "Hey!" Moments later she heard Lloyd call out for help from the same area up a dark pathway.

Marissa said, using the flashlight on her phone, she and her friend ran up the path to a house at the end of it, where they found Colten McNeely and Edgi.

"[Edgi] was trying to run away and he fell to the ground," said Marissa. Edgi's mother sobbed in the courtroom as she listened to the testimony.

Marissa said Colten McNeely raised his hands above his head and said his knife was on the ground. Police found a knife believed to be the murder weapon on the ground in that area.

"Did he say anything else?" asked the prosecutor.

"That he didn't do anything," answered Marissa.

She said McNeely ran off shortly after. The two women flagged down two men and they tried to keep Edgi alive by doing chest compressions and keeping pressure on stab wounds to his chest, but he died shortly after.

The trial is scheduled to continue into next week.