Video of a large burn barrel fire seized from an accused killer’s cellphone shows the “incineration” of Christopher Stevenson’s body and depicts a “celebration,” the prosecution told jurors Friday during closing arguments.
Shaun Folk is on trial in Calgary for second-degree murder, and Ali El-Sayed faces a charge of accessory after the fact to murder.
After nearly four weeks of hearing from witnesses, the Crown rested its case Wednesday.
On Friday morning, defence lawyers Pawel Milczarek and Rahul Nanda told jurors they would not be calling any evidence.
The case then moved onto closing arguments.
Both defence lawyers argued the Crown had not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt and asked jurors to acquit their clients.
‘Destroying the evidence’
Some of the prosecution’s key evidence, played for jurors again Friday, includes a video of a large burn barrel fire discovered by investigators on Folk’s cellphone.
The video was taken the morning after it’s alleged Stevenson was murdered in August 2023.
Folk’s former girlfriend identified his voice as the one on the video.
“Barbeque,” he sings before continuing: “F–k you, buddy. How do you like that? Goof.”
Prosecutor Katherine Love told jurors they should consider those words.
“I would suggest to you this is not the reaction of someone panicked or upset,” said Love.
“This is a celebration, a complete and utter lack of respect for the life of another human being and an indication of zero remorse for having taken that life.”
It’s alleged El-Sayed drove Stevenson’s body to the rural location where it was then “incinerated,” Love told jurors.
“He did that to assist Mr. Folk in destroying the evidence,” said Love.
Victim did not leave building alive: Crown
The Crown’s theory is that Folk and Stevenson were involved in a car theft and scheme to replace its VIN, and that Stevenson owed Folk about $1,500.
Texts recovered from cellphones show the two made a plan for Stevenson to attend Folk’s downtown Calgary apartment on Aug. 24, 2023.
CCTV video shows Folk showing up at the apartment and being let in by Folk’s then-girlfriend Kenedee Taylor.
“Mr. Stevenson did not leave that building, at least not alive,” said Love.
Taylor was originally charged with second-degree murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter before the trial started.
Last week, the prosecution called Taylor as a witness, but despite giving a detailed account of what took place in Folk’s apartment to police in 2024 and signing an agreed statement of facts just before trial, Folk said “I don’t remember” over and over again when questioned by the Crown.
‘Beat to shit’
Taylor told police that after she let Stevenson into the apartment building she went into her bedroom. She heard sounds of fighting and then told police that Folk came into the bedroom and ordered her to prepare a hotshot of fentanyl.
When she emerged with a needle loaded with the drug, Stevenson was lying on the floor, “beat to shit.” Another person in the room then administered deadly amounts of the drug to the victim, according to Taylor.
Shaun Alexander Folk, pictured here, is on trial for second-degree murder in the death of Christopher Stevenson. (Shaun Folk/LinkedIn)
Love also outlined DNA evidence, including Stevenson’s blood found on Folk’s walls, floor and a pair of his shoes.
But Folk’s lawyer Milczarek said there is no evidence to show when his client’s DNA was left behind and that the amount of blood found on the wall amounted to “no more than a speck … more like a papercut” than a “bloodletting event,” as he said the Crown had described the scene.
Human bones, ring found in ashes
Video evidence from the apartment showed El-Sayed arriving in a minivan, which was then taken into Folk’s condo building’s parkade after he moved a bin on wheels up to his unit.
Then, the minivan parks near the elevator bank and is loaded with something heavy enough that a CCTV close up of the van shows its wheels moving forward slightly.
The video shows El-Sayed in the driver’s seat and Folk in the passenger seat as the pair heads out of the parkade and, according to the Crown, off to a rural area in Rocky View County.
But Nanda, El-Sayed’s lawyer, argued that his client’s presence at the burn site was not established by the Crown’s evidence and that there is no evidence of when the video, found on Folk’s phone, was recorded.
Investigators sifting through the burn barrel ashes identified human bone fragments as well as a ring that Stevenson’s mother identified as an old wedding ring that she’d given her son and that he wore on a necklace.
‘Crown has not met its burden’
Folk’s lawyer, Milczarek, began his submissions by reviewing the concept of reasonable doubt.
“If you think Mr. Folk probably did what the Crown alleges he did, you must deliver a verdict of not guilty,” said Milczarek.
“The Crown has not met its burden for murder or manslaughter.”
Additionally, said Nanda, “no one has described what occurred in that apartment.”
“If you find that Mr. Folk did not commit murder, then Mr. El-Sayed is not guilty of accessory.
“There is more than ample amount of doubt.”