Deliberations underway for jurors hearing North Thompson murder trial

Photo: Castanet Staff

A prosecutor urged a dozen jurors Wednesday to use their common sense when deciding the fate of a North Thompson woman accused of shooting her husband to death while camping near Clearwater two years ago.

Ashleigh Tschritter is standing trial in B.C. Supreme Court on one count of second-degree murder. Closing arguments were heard on Wednesday morning and jurors began deliberations late in the afternoon.

Tschritter, 33, is accused of fatally shooting her husband, David Joseph Robert Simpson, in the early-morning hours of Sept. 6, 2020. Court has heard the shooting is alleged to have taken place at a campsite off a forest service road near Vavenby, east of Clearwater on Highway 5.

Simpson died as the result of a gunshot wound to the chest. A forensic pathologist testified the injury caused “catastrophic damage” to his heart.

The Crown’s case rests largely on the testimony of eyewitness Gary Flowers, who told jurors he was with Tschritter and Simpson when the fatal shot was fired.

Flowers said he was a friend and landlord to the couple when they invited him for an evening hangout at their campsite on Sept. 5, 2020. He said they were drinking and shooting guns when the couple began to argue.

According to Flowers, Tschritter retrieved a shotgun and pointed it at Simpson. He said she fired a single shot at him from about six feet away.

Crown prosecutor Tim Livingston told jurors to apply their common sense to the evidence they saw and heard during the trial. He said the case boils down to a simple question: Who shot Simpson?

“That answer, which is consistent with the evidence in this case, is Ashleigh Tschritter,” he said.

At one point during his submissions on Wednesday, Livingston picked up and held the shotgun that fired the shot that killed Simpson in an attempt to show jurors it would have been "near impossible" for the man to have shot himself. When Tschritter phoned 911 moments after the shooting, she told a dispatcher her husband "blew a hole in himself."

During cross-examination, defence lawyer Bobby Movassaghi repeatedly accused Flowers of being the real shooter. In his closing submissions on Wednesday, Movassaghi repeatedly mentioned Flowers.

“I made a number of suggestions to him during his evidence [that he was the shooter],” he said. “He obviously denied them — of course he would.”

Movassaghi accused police of having “tunnel vision.” He said Mounties were acting on what Flowers told them when they arrested Tschritter.

“He met them first. He got out in front of this,” he said.

“The police effectively just went with his version of events.”

Tschritter did not testify in her own defence and called no evidence.