Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury still found accused guilty of murdering battle rapperPublished Jun 26, 202510 minute readMalyssa Burns holds a friend’s baby June 18 after a jury found Adam Joseph Drake guilty of second-degree murder in the September 2022 stabbing death of Burns’ common-law husband, battle rapper Pat Stay. Photo by Ryan TaplinArticle contentProsecutors were unable to offer the jury a motive at Adam Drake’s recent trial for second-degree murder in the September 2022 stabbing death of battle rapper Pat Stay, but they tried.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Subscribe now to access this story and more:Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsSUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES.Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsRegister to unlock more articles.Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.Access additional stories every monthShare your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting communityGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorArticle contentIn a 2024 pre-trial decision, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Scott Norton ruled that hearsay evidence the Crown wanted to introduce to show Stay feared Drake would be inadmissible at trial.Article contentArticle contentArticle contentThe Crown alleged there was a long history of animosity by Drake towards Stay. They said the source of that animosity was because the rapper had gone on a couple of dates with Chelsea Clancey, the mother of Drake’s child, sometime before Stay met his future common-law spouse, Malyssa Burns, in 2015.Article contentDrake knew of the dates and was angry, the prosecution said. It asked the judge to allow the jury to hear several statements allegedly made by Stay between 2015 and 2022 to permit the inference that he feared Drake.Article contentBut Norton said it would be “unsafe” to admit the evidence at trial.Article content“To the extent that the relevance of the evidence depends on a chain of reasoning from Pat Stay’s concerns about Adam Drake to the formation by Mr. Drake of a motive to kill Pat Stay, there are missing links in the chain,” the judge said in an Aug. 15, 2024, decision that was released to the public Thursday.Article contentArticle content“There is no evidence before me of a triggering or precipitating event, other than a date with Chelsea Clancey in or before 2015. There is no reliable evidence of any threat by Mr. Drake to physically harm Mr. Stay.Article content“I find that the proposed utterances do not reasonably support the inference proposed by the Crown. I find that the proposed evidence does not make it more probable that Adam Drake had a motive to kill Pat Stay in September 2022. The evidence lacks threshold relevance.”Article content Acclaimed Dartmouth battle rapper Pat Stay died Sept. 4, 2022, after he was stabbed at a nightclub in downtown Halifax. Photo by File photoArticle contentThe judge said that even if he found that the utterances fell within the principled approach or constituted evidence of Stay’s state of mind as exceptions to the presumption of inadmissibility, the balancing of their probative value and prejudicial effect would favour exclusion.Article content“Aspects of the evidence are vague or ambiguous and capable of misapprehension, and the impugned utterances are all based on an unproven premise of threats by Mr. Drake,” Norton said.Article content“Notwithstanding any protective instruction to the jury, there is a danger that this evidence would be used by the trier of fact as proof of intent on the part of Mr. Drake. There is a real and substantial concern that this evidence would unfairly arouse the jury’s emotions of prejudice, hostility or sympathy.Article content“The probative value of the evidence is substantially outweighed by its prejudicial effect. The Crown has failed to overcome its burden to prove that the impugned statements are admissible. The application is dismissed.”Article contentStay, a 36-year-old father of two, died Sept. 4, 2022, after he was stabbed in the chest at the Yacht Club Social, a bar in downtown Halifax.Article contentDrake, 34, was arrested six days later in a high-risk takedown outside a gas station in Upper Tantallon.Article contentHis trial got underway May 12 at the Mellor Avenue courthouse in Dartmouth. Even without the excluded evidence, the jury found him guilty June 18 after deliberating for less than seven hours.Article contentArticle contentDrake’s sentencing hearing is set for Oct. 24. The offence carries an automatic penalty of life in prison. The judge will decide how many years Drake must serve – somewhere between 10 and 25 – before he is eligible to apply for parole.Article contentIt was Drake’s second conviction for murder. Last October, a Supreme Court judge found him guilty of first-degree murder in the Nov. 21, 2016, shooting death of Tyler Keizer in Halifax. In December, the judge imposed the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years.Article contentThe Keizer matter was subject to a publication ban to ensure Drake got a fair trial on the Stay charge.Article contentThe pre-trial decision released Thursday shows the Crown wanted to introduce several statements through Burns, Stay’s widow.Article content Adam Joseph Drake glares at the media as his hands are cuffed following an appearance in Halifax provincial court Oct. 31, 2022. Photo by Tim KrochakArticle contentDuring lunch at a tavern in 2015, shortly after they began dating, Burns said she showed Stay text messages from someone she believed to be Drake. Stay allegedly said words to the effect: “Just block him, he’s psycho.”Article contentArticle contentBurns said that a short time later, she asked Stay why he was so nervous about Drake. He allegedly told her that he had taken Clancey on two walks – dates – and that had made Drake mad.Article contentOver the years, Burns said Stay would communicate to her every six to 12 months during “pillow talk” that he had received a Facebook message from someone he believed to be Drake. She said he did not show her the messages but told her they were misspelled. She said Stay said words to the effect that Drake “spells like he is on drugs” and “if he’s high … he’ll kill me”.Article contentAnother time, Stay said something to the effect that “if he sees me and he has a weapon, he’ll kill me” and “if I bump into him, he’s going to try to kill me.”Article contentIn 2021, Burns said Stay told her she could not accept an invitation to a new bar because it was affiliated with Drake. In May 2022, he allegedly told her he would have to investigate whether it was safe to attend another new bar, Level 8.Article contentOne morning at 4 o’clock, within six months of his death, she said Stay showed her a message in a thread of Facebook messages from a person he thought was Drake. The message said “I didn’t forget about you,” with a winky face emoji. She said she observed the name Adam on the sender’s profile.Article contentSometime after May 2022, Pat returned home and allegedly told Burns he had run into Clancey at Jacob’s Lounge in downtown Dartmouth and had unpleasantly asked her why she was putting people in danger by telling Drake about their walks. Burns said Stay was afraid she would tell Drake.Article contentStay allegedly told Tracey Burns, Malyssa’s mother, on two occasions that someone had been threatening his life.Article contentOn Natal Day weekend in early August 2022, Stay allegedly told a close friend, Austin Kitchen, that Drake had been sending him pictures of Keizer.Article contentThe Crown also wanted to enter a Facebook message in which Pat Stay posted “I think I’ll keep my distance” in response to a photo of a tattoo that read “F— Adam Drake.”Article contentArticle contentDuring the August 2024 pretrial hearing, the Crown called evidence from Wren Brunette, who was with Stay on July 30, 2022, the night of his encounter with Clancey. Following the meeting, Stay allegedly told Brunette he had received a call warning him that Drake was on his way to the bar to kill him.Article contentShe said they left the bar and Stay begged her to go home. She said Stay went into another bar by himself and she waited for him outside.Article contentThey exchanged electronic messages, she said, before they went home separately. They exchanged more messages that night and the next day.Article contentIn his analysis, the judge said any utterances allegedly made prior to June 2022 were not “adequately contemporaneous” with the death of Stay.Article content“Claims that Mr. Drake ‘threatened to kill him’ are not evidence of the declarant’s state of mind but of the defendant’s intention, for which there is no independent evidentiary support that would render the statements otherwise admissible,” Norton said. “Similarly, what Pat Stay said about contents of messages he says he received from Mr. Drake are not evidence of his state of mind.Article contentArticle content“Without the opportunity to cross-examine Mr. Stay on his perception, memory, narration and sincerity, the trier of fact will not be in a position to choose between competing explanations. There are no adequate substitutes for contemporaneous cross-examination. The evidence is not admissible on the principled approach.”Article contentHe said the only time Stay allegedly showed anyone a message that he “believed” was from Drake is the Facebook message he showed his spouse at 4 o’clock one morning.Article content“There is no other evidence to support the finding that this message was from Mr. Drake,” The judge said. “Otherwise, no one was ever shown any of the messages supposedly sent by Mr. Drake to Mr. Stay.Article content“Wren Brunette could not testify that she witnessed Mr. Stay receiving a phone call when they were at the Celtic Corner bar. A forensic search of Mr. Stay’s phone and computer produced no evidence of any direct message received by Pat Stay from Mr. Drake or any phone call received by Pat Stay during the time he was at the Celtic Corner bar with Wren Brunette. Further, Malyssa testified that because of his fame, Mr. Stay received all kinds of messages from fans and ‘crazies’ that would include, at times, threats from unknown people by way of direct messages.Article content“The impugned statements are months and in some cases many years removed from the time of Mr. Stay’s death. The suggestion that Mr. Drake had motive to kill Mr. Stay because he went on a walk with the mother of Mr. Drake’s child sometime in or before 2015 is illogical and irrational. Malyssa Burns herself could not understand this thinking.”Article contentClancey was examined by the Crown at the pre-trial hearing. “She was not asked how Mr. Drake reacted when he was told of the walks,” Norton said. ” She was not asked if Pat Stay was upset with her when she saw him at the bar or if he implored her to reach out to Adam Drake and ask him to stop threatening him. She said she did not tell Mr. Drake that she had encountered Mr. Stay at the Celtic Corner bar.Article content“When recounting this event to Malyssa, Pat Stay told her he was at Jacob’s Lounge and implied he was alone. The evidence is clear that he was at Celtic Corner … with another woman. … Other than Wren Brunette relating that Mr. Stay told her he received a call warning him of a pending threat that Mr. Drake was on his way to kill him, there is no foundational evidence to give this statement any threshold reliability. Malyssa did not testify that he told her of receiving a phone warning of any threat when he returned home that night.”Article contentArticle content Crown attorneys Tanya Carter, left, and Carla Ball take questions from reporters June 18 after Adam Drake was found guilty of second-degree murder in the September 2022 stabbing death of battle rapper Pat Stay. Photo by Steve BruceArticle contentThe judge said Burns described Stay as generally paranoid from the time she first met him. She also acknowledged he used cocaine at times, and that it would effect his paranoia and change his demeanour.Article content“Her observation of general paranoia was corroborated by the testimony of her mother, Tracey Burns,” Norton said. “Tracey Burns testified that Pat Stay told her someone had threatened his life but never said who, nor did he provide any information about the location, gender or relationship of this person to him. She thought that he was being dramatic and did not take him seriously.Article contentMalyssa Burns said Stay kept a bat in the trunk of his car and by the entrance to their home and also had knives in a bedside table and in a hallway console table.Article content“He would take a knife to the door if someone knocked unexpectedly,” The judge said. “No evidence suggested this was tied to any concern about Adam Drake in particular. There was no evidence that Mr. Drake ever threatened to come to the house or even that he knew where Pat Stay lived.”Article contentArticle contentNorton also observed that Stay never confided in Brunette that there had been any other threats by Drake prior to the night at the bar. “She found his reaction to the threat – going to another bar rather than phoning the police or going home – was perplexing,” he said.Article content“It is posited that Pat Stay’s fear of Adam Drake was bound up in his belief that Adam Drake was a psychopath who had killed others. Pat Stay and Adam Drake did not socialize. They had never met in person. There is no evidence to corroborate or justify this belief.Article content“There is no forensic evidence that Pat Stay had any direct threatening messages from Adam Drake on his personal social media accounts on his phone or computer. There is no evidence that he received any call by phone or through a phone app on the night of July 30, 2022, when he was at Celtic Corner. There was one public posting on his official fan page. It was a public comment on a public Facebook page.”Article contentThat comment by Drake read “Can’t wait to give u a big hug” and was posted on Stay’s Facebook fan page about 18 weeks before the killing. The judge, in a separate ruling, admitted that post as evidence at trial.Article contentThe Crown, in its closing submissions to the jury, argued the comment was an implied threat.Article content
Evidence that Stay allegedly feared Drake was not admitted at trial
