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A Saskatoon judge must now decide whether Nykera Brown killed herself, or was shot by her boyfriend Andrew Rosenfeldt.
Rosenfeldt is on trial charged with second-degree murder in the death of 20-year-old Nykera Brown on Nov. 15, 2022. She died of a single gunshot wound to the head in the couple’s apartment on Avenue P South.
Justice Heather MacMillan-Brown heard diametrically opposed interpretations of the evidence called during the three-week judge-alone trial at Court of King’s Bench by prosecutor Elizabeth Addabor and defence lawyer Chris Murphy.
Rosenfeldt and Brown were both members of the Terror Squad street gang. Rosenfeldt, on house arrest with an ankle monitor for a driving conviction, sold drugs from the couple’s apartment.
Both Addabor and Murphy did not dispute that Brown was a troubled young woman. Witnesses and evidence showed her ongoing struggles with addiction and mental health. She was also struggling to get custody of her son, who had been apprehended by Social Services.
“There is a distinction between living with suicidal ideations and committing suicide,” Addabor said in her close.
“These are two separate things. Look to the night of Nov. 15. She did not speak of suicide to her friends, mother or in her diary.”
Addabor added that Brown was trying to get into detox and rehab, and had written a letter to her young son saying “Mommy is working hard to get better, love you little man.”
Addabor said that Brown no longer wanted to live “in that roach-infested apartment” and she was willing leave her belongings with her brother and live on the street rather than stay with Rosenfeldt.
She said that Rosenfeldt was a small-time drug dealer who was threatened by Brown’s imminent departure because he believed that she would take his clientele, and livelihood, with him, Addabor said.
“There is no dispute the bullet in her head came from the recovered firearm. The main question is, who pulled the trigger,” she said.
“All the circumstantial evidence points to murder.”
In his close, Murphy said the only evidence heard at trial that is consistent with guilt is the 911 call Rosenfeldt made in the moments after Brown was shot, and his two interviews with police in the 24 hours after her death.
He lied in all three instances, claiming, at various points, that two masked men had broken into the apartment and shot Brown. He also denied knowing anything about the gun that killed her.
He recanted the home invasion story in his second interview when police told him security cameras did not show anyone coming to or leaving the building. He also admitted to hiding a sawed-off rifle when police found it under a bed.
Murphy said Rosenfeldt’s circumstances must be considered when looking at his lies.
The 28-year-old called 911 moments after his girlfriend had been shot in the head in his apartment. He was an Indigenous man wearing an ankle monitor in an apartment with ammunition, cocaine and meth.
“He’s on house arrest with a dead body in his living room. In a perfect world, he would have said my girlfriend shot herself, send help,” Murphy said.
“So — he’s stupid. He did something in a panic that’s stupid. He’s guilty of being stupid, not of being a murderer.”
Murphy said evidence showed that Brown had a significant amount of drugs in her system when she died and was depressed because she had lost her son. She wanted to go into detox but was losing her battle with drugs, “and this was a person in crisis.”
Murphy also referenced the autopsy report by pathologist Shaun Ladham.
Ladham said the autopsy revealed no offensive or defensive wounds that played a part in her death. The shot that killed her came from the barrel of a gun held under her chin and struck her in the head.
Murphy asked Ladham whether it would be physically possible for Brown to have shot the weapon herself.
