Closing arguments are now underway in the trial of Schuyler ‘Skyler’ Van Wissen. He's charged with first-degree murder in connection with the 2011 homicide of 33-year-old Gina Swanson.
In May 2011, Swanson, a single mother of one, finished her shift working as a bartender and was safely walked to her car at the Dakota Community Centre.
When she didn’t make it to her shift the next day at a Liquor Mart and didn’t answer her phone, MLCC staff contacted Swanson’s parents.
Swanson’s father, a retired police officer, found her body bound and stabbed in her home on Edderton Avenue.
Police arrested Van Wissen in Toronto in August 2011 and charged him with first-degree murder and assault with a weapon.
"Please don't let Skyler Van Wissen become a victim of injustice," defence lawyer Martin Glazer said to the jury on Monday morning. "There is no proof beyond a reasonable doubt. All there is, is a theory instead of conclusive evidence," he said.
"This is real life,” he said. “You're not here to solve a mystery. You’re here to answer one question. Is Skyler Van Wissen guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?"
But Crown Attorney Mike Himmelman argued the evidence against Skyler Van Wissen is straightforward, and there is lots of it.
“She was attacked by the accused. Murdered,” Himmelman argued, adding that Van Wissen had “loads of opportunity."
"You can accept based on confinement, the sex assault happened at same time,” Himmelman said. “Given her hands were tied, she could not fight back and may have even been unconscious."
Then the Crown detailed forensic evidence for the jury, saying there was just a one in 510 billion chance the DNA profile belongs to someone other than Van Wissen.
"Who is the killer?" Himmelman asked. "No doubt it is Skyler Van Wissen."
He asked the jury to find him guilty.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations Wednesday.
