'That’s when we heard shots': First witness testifies in 2018 Windsor murder trial

A Windsor murder trial from a 2018 shooting that resulted in the death of a 20-year-old University of Windsor student resumed in Superior Court Thursday with the jury hearing from the first witnesses.

Jason Pantlitz-Solomon was shot multiple times near the corner of Ouellette and University Avenues in the early morning hours of Aug. 27, 2018.

Kahli Johnson Phillips is charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder.

The trail began Wednesday with jury selection and opening statements.

Things got underway Thursday in dramatic fashion as Camille Lufitha-Molima, who was dating Pantlitz-Solomon at the time, was called as the first witness.

She testified she was with Pantlitz-Solomon the night of the shooting. The pair was at a lingerie party together at an Airbnb on the same block where the shooting would eventually take place in downtown Windsor.

Lufitha-Molima told the jury she arrived at the party around midnight, where she met up with with Pantlitz-Solomon. They were having drinks and dancing when he received a Snapchat message from someone who said they wanted to buy marijuana from him, she said.

“He told me he was going to meet someone outside and I offered to accompany him and that’s when we left,” Lufitha-Molima told the jury.

She said they went outside and waited outside at the corner of Ouellette and University Avenues for about 10 minutes, indicating neither she nor Pantlitz-Solomon knew who they were meeting, only someone by the Snapchat name “Shawty Killa,” but admitted she was growing suspicious as they waited.

“I just felt uneasy. I felt like something was wrong. I had accompanied him before and it never took this long, so I just wanted to see,” she testified.

Surveillance video from the dash of a Vets Cab was played in court, showing Lufitha-Molima and Pantlitz-Solomon waiting near the corner around 2:38 a.m. Aug. 27.

Then, dash-cam video from a different Vets Cab was presented to the jury, showing the dramatic events that occurred just moments later at 2:41 a.m.

“That’s when we heard shots,” she said.

Lufitha-Molima said her back was turned when the first of many gunshots were fired.

“Once we heard the shots, we ran back towards the Airbnb,” she testified. “At that point he was beside me and once I took a few steps I turned back to see that he was on the floor.”

She said Pantlitz Solomon was shot multiple times. Lufitha-Molima was also shot in the left thigh. She would later recover.

She went on to say she didn’t see the shooters that night, she could only hear the shots and couldn’t identify a shooter. The video shown in court clearly shows two suspects, taking aim in what assistant Crown attorney Jayme Lesperance referred to as “execution style” shooting.

When the video of the shooting was played in court, the room fell silent and gasping could be heard in the room.

In cross-examination, Lufitha-Molima was asked by defence attorney Michael Moon about Pantlitz-Solomon’s twin brother Jerome, who court heard was a member of Mississauga-based gang ‘YCG.’

She said she could tell the two twin brothers apart and was aware Jason’s brother was a member of that gang, though she didn’t know many details.

TESTIMONY FROM FIRST POLICE ON SCENE

Next to testify was Windsor Police Const. Drew Palmer.

He told the jury he and his partner were close by in their police cruiser at the corner of Pitt and Goyeau Streets when they heard the shots. He counted six or seven shots in quick succession.

“We couldn’t tell where it was coming from but we knew something was happening downtown,” he said.

He testified they drove a short distance around the corner and up the street and were on scene within 30-40 seconds. While they drove, they heard dispatch call out to all units that a shooting had taken place in downtown Windsor, a realization that made them both “pucker.”

Const. Palmer and his partner arrived at University Avenue and he got out of the car, rifle in hand, and ran towards the scene while his partner stayed in the cruiser and drove alongside him. They were the first officers on scene.

When he got to the scene of the shooting, Const. Palmer said he immediately saw a man on the ground.

“I noted mostly the amount of blood already on scene and the pooling of blood underneath him,” Const. Palmer testified. “His eyes were already rolled back in his head and this is 15 seconds after we heard the shots. It was a very fresh and very chaotic scene because we were there immediately.”

Pantlitz-Solomon died in hospital that night.

These were the first of up to 60 witnesses to be called by the crown in a trial that could take up to four months.