Alex Consiglio
SENIOR REPORTER
PHOTO COURTESY OF CIKOVIC FAMILY // 17-year-old murder victim Boris Cikovic.
A Humber student on trial for second-degree murder took the stand yesterday to refute an alleged confession he made to his former high school teacher by testifying it was a fabrication used to get a nice place to sleep.
Nahor Araya, 21, is on trial and has pleaded not guilty. He’s been free on bail since April 2009 and was forced to take this semester off – his last in the general arts and science program – due to the trial.
The Crown alleges that on Oct. 3, 2008, one man of a group of four assaulted and robbed Boris Cikovic, 17, of his knapsack at gunpoint, ultimately leading to Cikovic being shot and killed as he chased after his alleged assailant.
The Crown is not alleging Araya was the shooter, but was still a party to the murder by participating in the robbery.
Last week, the Crown called Cordel Brown, Araya’s former English teacher at Silverthorn Collegiate, to the stand.
Brown alleges that on Oct. 7, 2008, Araya confessed his involvement in the robbery, telling him he was part of a group of men that were going to “roll-up” (rob) some people in Buttonwood Park, but he kept telling them “no,” and “didn’t do anything” and “didn’t have the gun.”
Araya said he was living in a youth shelter at the time, having been kicked out of his home by his mother.
“It was loud, dirty, a lot of drug addicts there – you couldn’t get much sleep,” he said, adding, “overall, it was a depressing place.”
He said in his month at Silverthorn he’d developed a good relationship with Brown, who knew he was in a shelter and offered him a place to stay.
Araya said that’s why he went to see Brown on Oct. 7, adding when Brown started to shrug him off and tell him he couldn’t talk, he got desperate and panicked.
“I couldn’t stay in that shelter one more night,” he said, adding he thought, “the more desperate my situation was, the more willing he’d be to help.”
Araya said that’s why he fabricated a story about a couple of guys outside a plaza who were going to “roll-up” on some kids – a story that had “no truth whatsoever,” adding he never used the word “park” or “gun.”
He went on to testify he was at his friend John Kenny’s house with his then-girlfriend Keelie Cook for “the whole night” on Oct. 3, 2008.
During cross examination by Crown attorney Patrick Travers, Araya confirmed that the youth shelter in which he was staying in 2008 was the same one he’d been to twice before when kicked out of his home.
He then said he never did get around to asking Brown for a place to stay and spent that Oct. 7 night at the shelter, along with a majority of the next morning.
Travers finishes his cross examination of Araya today, when the defence is expected to call Cook to the stand next.