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The ex-husband of Tatjana Stefanski, who is accused of stabbing her to death in rural British Columbia in 2024, has told a jury her death was “like a suicide” and the Crown had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he murdered her.
“You should believe me that I am not guilty,” said Vitali Stefanski during closing submissions at his second-degree murder trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops on Thursday.
Stefanski had been represented by a lawyer for much of the trial, but jurors were told last week he would be representing himself, including for closing arguments.
The jury later began deliberating after receiving instructions from Justice Bradford Smith.
Tatjana Stefanski’s body was found with numerous stab wounds off a rural forest service road near Lumby, B.C., in April 2024.
The trial heard that a bent and bloodied knife found nearby had the DNA of both Tatjana and Vitali Stefanski, while police testified that the accused emerged shoeless from the forest and confessed to the killing before gesturing in the direction of the body.
“I never said that,” Stefanski said on Thursday.
“That statement does not exist, so that does not exist, and he has no proof that it does exist,” he said referring to an RCMP officer’s testimony.
Referring to the alleged confession, Smith urged the jurors to use common sense, saying they must decide whether they believe Stefanski made the statements or any part of them.
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Stefanski had testified at the trial that his ex-wife stabbed herself in his car and he denied dumping her body, instead saying she slipped from his grasp by the road.
“For me, it’s like a suicide,” he told the jury on Thursday.
Crown lawyer Laura Drake told the jury in her closing arguments on Wednesday that the only reasonable conclusion from the evidence is that Stefanski stabbed his ex-wife to death, and his explanation of events was inconsistent with common sense.
But Stefanski told the jury on Thursday that what the Crown claims happened was “actually opposite and even wrong.”
“You should reject everything that Crown said yesterday,” said Stefanski, who speaks both German and Russian and delivered his arguments in heavily accented English.
He added that he “was not planning to hurt Tatjana” and there is “practically no evidence” to prove he was responsible for her death.
Smith told the jurors after closing arguments that they “may accept all, part or none of Mr. Stefanski’s evidence.”
“You must not presume that an accused who testifies will lie out of self-interest to avoid being convicted of the offence charged,” the judge said.
The court has heard Tatjana Stefanski was stabbed in the chest seven times, injuring her heart and lungs, leading to her death. It heard she also suffered multiple “sharp-force injuries” to her arms and legs and wounds to her hands that a pathologist, Dr. Eric Bol, said were consistent with “defensive-type” injuries.
Stefanski denied inflicting any of the injuries both during his testimony and again in his closing statement.
He testified at trial that on the morning of April 13, 2024, his ex-wife had approached him at her home with a bloody nose, and they drove away together in his black Audi.
He said he then discovered she had been stabbed with his own fishing knife and testified he “did everything” to get her help, explaining that he drove in the opposite direction from the nearest hospital because of the way his car was parked.
Stefanski described his ex-wife going quiet, then removing her from the car before trying to put her back in, when her body “slipped” from his grasp and went down an embankment.
He said he attempted suicide by drowning, then by stabbing himself with a kitchen knife he found at a cabin, losing consciousness and waking up the next morning.
“My plan was to go to Tatjana, call emergency, and I was still hoping that she survived,” he said Thursday, echoing his earlier testimony.
Stefanski said he was taken to hospital after being arrested, but no doctors had testified to finding any evidence to indicate he caused his ex-wife’s injuries.
“I have no scratches, no cuts, no bruises … and there wasn’t anything that would indicate that Vitali caused Tatjana’s death,” he said Thursday, referring to himself in the third person.
If he had attacked her, he said, there would be evidence to show it.
“I tell you why they do not exist,” he said of his lack of injuries. “Because I’m just a witness.”
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