Here is a picture and a recent article about my father,Davidee Nowdlak at age 23. He is described as a gentle, thoughtful man who loved bannock and Greenlandic music. The former legal aid worker and city councillor died in Iqaluit on Aug. 6.
My father was brutally beaten two years ago and died as a result. The accused is charged with 2nd degree murder but is being tried as a youth.
I was robbed of the chance to meet my father. My mother and father divorced when I was 2 years old. I saw my father for the first time in 21 years in the ICU at Ottawa Civic Hospital.
I know justice will not be served and I would like to help in any way I can for future victiIQALUIT – Lawyers called their last witnesses Tuesday in the trial of an Iqaluit man charged with second-degree murder.
The man was under 18 years of age at the time of his arrest two years ago and cannot be named.
He’s accused of beating 47-year-old Davidee Nowdlak in July 2002.
Nowdlak was medevaced to Ottawa and returned to Iqaluit in a coma. He died of brain damage almost a month later at the Baffin Regional Hospital.
The accused sat between his two defence lawyers, listening quietly as witnesses went before Justice Earl Johnson.
He was charged with second degree murder two months before turning 18, and his case is being heard in youth court.
Crown prosecutors wanted him tried as an adult but failed in that attempt.
Since the trial began, the Crown has called 20 witnesses, including police officers, civilians and doctors.
According to some witnesses, the accused punched Nowdlak, knocking him to the ground and repeatedly kicking him in the head until restrained by a neighbour.
They say the accused returned to hit the unconscious Nowdlak on the head with a pop bottle.
Both defence experts dealt with the possible influence of alcohol on thinking and behaviour.
Two witnesses had testified the accused was drinking heavily with them on the night of the beating.
Based on their testimony, a pharmacologist estimated the accused could have consumed up to five times more than the legal limit.
But the accused didn’t undergo an alcohol test on the day of the beating. He was arrested four weeks after the incident.
Lawyers will present their final arguments on Friday.
ms of crime