The man charged with second-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Misha Pavelick during a 2006 graduation party at a campground near Regina Beach bragged about stabbing someone that night, a witness said. The now 36-year-old accused’s identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, because he was 17 at the time. On Thursday, Scott Nelson testified Thursday at the Court of King’s Bench in Regina on the fourth day of the accused’s jury trial, being presided over by Justice Catherine Dawson. In 2007, Nelson pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for stabbing another partygoer, Derek Enns, on the same night that Pavelick died — May 21, 2006.Nelson, who was 20 years old at the time, said he travelled up to the Kinookimaw campground, 45 kilometres northwest of Regina, with a group of friends who had cases of beer and wanted to party. He said the accused, whom he often partied with, had been driving the car that night.”We never went out there to hurt [anybody],” he testified. Nelson remembered a point during the party when a few of his friends, including the accused, pulled out folding knives and started showing them off. Nelson said those knives were passed around. The accused handed him a yellow knife with an eagle on it. Dustin Scudder testified earlier in the trial that he brought a knife matching that description to the party. Nelson said dozens of teens were standing in groups around the fire, hanging out and drinking. He didn’t initially perceive the party as tense, but said there was a point where he could feel the animosity in the air.He said Andrew Perkins, who was dating Pavelick’s ex-girlfriend at the time, asked the group to watch his back, because someone wanted to fight him one-on-one. Nelson testified that Pavelick approached Perkins shortly after, looking to fight.”Bottles got smashed, and it went south fast,” he said. Nelson said he saw Perkins go limp and fall to the ground as he felt glass and the remnants of beer spray all over him. Pavelick had approached Perkins with a beer bottle and hit him over the head, he testified. As he reached down to pull Perkins back to his feet, Nelson said another beer bottle was thrown from a different direction that hit his head and chipped his tooth. He turned to see Enns.Nelson said he remembered pulling his knife out and running over to attack Enns. Steps away, he looked over to see his friends, including the accused, grouped around Perkins as they all kicked Pavelick who was lying on the ground. “He was curled up on the ground, like, in a defensive position,” said Nelson.Accused seemed ‘erratic’Nelson said his group eventually returned to the accused’s vehicle in the parking lot, with the accused the last to arrive. The accused seemed excited, Nelson testified. He said the accused approached him near the front of the vehicle and started to brag about stabbing someone.Crown prosecutor Adam Breker asked Nelson what happened to the knives after the big brawl earlier in the evening. He told the court the accused wanted to get rid of the weapons.”He was pretty adamant about that,” said Nelson. The group was driving back to Regina when they came to a police check along the highway, Nelson said. He said the accused parked along the highway and started running down the road. Nelson said the accused’s cousin had to coax him back into the vehicle. “He was crying, acting all weird and erratic,” he said. Nelson said they got to Regina and parked near a gas station in the city’s north end.”At that point, definitely there was word going around that someone died,” he said, adding that he thought it was Enns. Nelson told the court there was a moment when the accused was on the phone, visibly upset and crying. Breker asked Nelson why he didn’t originally tell those details to police in 2006. “Snitches get stitches,” he replied.Nelson told Breker he was loyal to his friends, but at the same time he didn’t want to be charged for a killing that he didn’t commit, and he wanted to take ownership for his actions.2021 RCMP interviewThe defence pushed back at Nelson not coming forward about the accused sooner. Defence attorney Andrew Hitchcock noted that while Nelson was never charged for Pavelick’s murder, he was investigated for it and accused of it — more than once. A video was displayed to the court showing a day in June 2021 when Nelson was interrogated for hours by RCMP. A warrant had been issued for his DNA at the time.”You went in there — at that stage of your life, things are going much better for you than they did before,” Hitchcock said to Nelson. He then asked why, at a time when police were looking at him again for Pavelick’s killing, he did not mention the accused.”I knew I wasn’t going down for this murder,” he said.Hitchcock also challenged Nelson’s description of where the accused confessed to stabbing Pavelick. Nelson told the court Thursday it was at the campground, but testified at the preliminary hearing it was at Regina Beach.”We were in so many different parking lots,” Nelson replied, adding he is still certain it happened near the accused’s car. Hitchcock noted a moment earlier in the day when Nelson insisted he didn’t remember joining in to kick Pavelick at the campground. He then played the video showing a moment during the 2021 interrogation when police had asked Nelson that same question. Nelson was heard telling an officer he did not recall kicking Pavelick that night. That’s when the officer told him he had stopped the recording. “If you did kick Misha on the ground, like I said, the kicking did not kill him,” the officer was heard saying at the time. That’s when Nelson admitted to kicking Pavelick a few times the night of his death.The video went on to show Nelson telling the officer he sometimes blacks out when he’s angry. “Is it not possible that you just don’t remember and might have struck other people with a knife?” Hitchcock asked.Nelson told the court it’s possible that he could have struck another person with a knife that night, but it’s not possible that it was Pavelick.The jury trial, scheduled for four weeks, is expected to resume Friday morning, when Enns is scheduled to testify.
Man accused of killing Misha Pavelick bragged about stabbing someone, Regina murder trial hears
