A witness testified Monday during the opening day of a first-degree murder trial that he saw Anthony Robert Willier shoot at Nathan Alcide Marshall the morning Marshall's body was found 19 months ago in the front yard of his Hemlock Street home.
Michael Sanche, 21, told the court he was sitting in the passenger side of a green Ford Explorer Willier, 22, known by the nickname Anny, was driving in the early morning hours of Feb. 17, 2010, when they pulled up to the end of the driveway of Marshall's home at 1790 Hemlock St.
"As soon as the vehicle stopped, that was when Nate came out of the house," said Sanche, who had testified they came to a stop so the passenger side was facing Marshall's home.
"He down the driveway and maybe at about three-quarters down the driveway, that's when Anny pulled out the gun from underneath the seat and started shooting out the window."
Sanche told the court he didn't actually see Marshall get hit or go down but added Willier fired off several rounds.
"I seen him [Willier] put his hand out the window and shoot... it went boom, boom, boom, boom," Sanche said, later estimating five shots were fired.
The three were familiar to each other through the local drug scene and from serving time in jail, Sanche testified.
As little as 30 minutes before the incident, Sanche said he was sitting in a Milburn Avenue crack shack when Willier walked into the house asked if he wanted to drop by Marshall's home.
"I said 'yeah,' I hadn't seen him [Marshall] for awhile," Sanche said.
As they were driving towards the destination, Sanche and Marshall were exchanging text messages and phone calls although Sanche couldn't remember if he was using Willier's cellphone or his own.
Willier's actions were not expected, the court heard, and they quickly left the scene.
"I was just like 'What the f---, man? Why would you do something like that?'" Sanche said. "And he told me to be quiet and don't worry about it, they're on the other side and blah, blah, blah."
Sanche said he was selling crack cocaine to finance his use of crystal meth and was friends with Game Tight Soldiers, which police say runs the street-level cocaine trade in conjunction with the Renegades biker gang.
About 10 minutes later they were back at the crack shack where Willier once again told Sanche to keep quiet and not worry about it. Police talked to Sanche the day after Marshall's body was found and five days later, Sanche decided to provide a statement telling what he saw.
"Most of all, I was scared of what was going to happen to me," Sanche said. "I was scared I was going to get murdered as well."
Sanche, who admitted to an extensive criminal record and in selling crack cocaine to support a habit that saw him smoke crystal methampethamine as much as every hour, said he quit doing drugs the day Marshall was killed.
Marshall, 27 years old at the time of his death, had been released on bail a few days before his death after he was arrested in connection with a Jan. 4, 2010 invasion of a home in the the 2600 block of Quince Street.
In an opening statement, Crown counsel Oleh Kuzma told the jury of eight men and four women it's expected they will hear that Marshall owed Willier money for bail and that there had been an incident between the two some years earlier.
It's also expected they'll hear that Willier was shot six times with a .45-calibre handgun that has never been found.
As many as 20 witnesses are expected to take the stand over the course of 10 days of court time.
The trial is being presided over by B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams and the defence lawyer is Keith Aartsen.
