The second-degree murder trial of Vitali Stefanski is nearing its conclusion in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops.
Closing arguments wrapped up Thursday and were followed by the judge’s final instructions to the jury ahead of deliberations.
Stefanski is accused of killing his ex-wife Tatjana Stefanski, whose body was found on April 14, 2024, down a steep embankment off a forest service road in the North Okanagan, one day after being reported missing.
Stefanski delivered his own closing arguments to the jury after he took conduct on his own defence mid-trial.
“My arguments to you that I am not guilty I will present today and you should believe me. I am not guilty,” Stefanski told the jury.
Security video presented during the trial showed the former couple speaking at the top of Tatjana Stefanski’s driveway in Lumby before prosecutors allege Stefanski forced her into his vehicle and drove away.
The Crown alleges she died from multiple stab wounds. Stefanski testified that his ex-wife stabbed herself.
Stefanski took well over an hour for his closing arguments.
He spoke quickly, rejecting a lot of the evidence presented by Crown, including the RCMP’s testimony that he confessed to the murder when he came across police on the forest service road.
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“That statement that she’s dead and I killed her, I never said that,” he told the jury. “That statement does not exist, so that does not exist and he has no proof that it does exist.”
In his closing arguments, he also said that Tatjana had moved into the back seat of the vehicle to rest, pointing to what he said was the absence of fingerprints on window controls and door handles as evidence supporting his claim that she inflicted the fatal injuries herself.
“Otherwise she will try to open the door, calling for help, running out or something else,” Stefanski told the jury.
The trial began on May 25.
“I see, you know, kind of the limbo that this family has been in all this time,” said Jen de Bourcier, a family friend who has been attending much of the trial.
“I just really want this to be over for them and for myself, you know, even just as a friend coming. It’s just this waiting, just kind of this tension in waiting for justice to be served.”
Tatjana and the accused shared two children. Both testified at the trial.
Gaudreault, who has legal guardianship of both, said the whole ordeal since Tatjana’s passing and re-living the tragedy through the trial has been unbearably painful.
In addition to justice, he’s also hoping the trial’s conclusion brings a sense of closure.
“Possibly able to breathe again and start a whole brand new life with my and Tatjana’s children and just carry on,” Gaudreault said.
The trial judge spent several hours delivering final instructions to the jury Thursday afternoon, with deliberations to follow.
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