Kaiah Edmonds didn’t think anything bad was going to happen as she drove toward a bush party in southwest London.
The driver, Carlos Guera Guerra, was armed with a handgun and had a second weapon, a sword or a large knife, in his SUV, Kaiah told the court Thursday.
Even after Guerra Guerra, a man Edmonds described as her “friend with benefits,” got out of his vehicle wearing a ski mask, Kaiah still didn’t sense any danger, she testified at the second-degree murder trial of Guerra Guerra and Emily Altmann.
“It sounds weird, but a lot of people wear a ski mask. . . . I didn’t think anything of it at the time,” Edmonds said.
But something bad did happen.
Western University student Josue Silva, 18, was fatally shot at the bush party celebrating a friend’s birthday on July 31, 2021.
Altmann, 22, and Guerra Guerra, 23, have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and not guilty to assault with a weapon on Logan Marshall, Silva’s best friend.
Edmonds, 21, took the stand at the fifth day of the trial, telling the court about the events that led up to the deadly shooting in a wooded area near Pack Road.
Edmonds, who recently graduated from H.B. Beal secondary school, was at a party near Fanshawe College with Guerra Guerra, Dylan Schaap and his girlfriend, but they decided to leave to go to the bush party.
Guerra Guerra was driving to the party when he received a call from Altmann, saying she was going to be “jumped,” Edmonds said, adding she didn’t know Altmann.
During the 30-minute ride to the bush party, Edmonds saw Guerra Guerra holding a handgun and there was an edged weapon near the front console, she said.
“It just looked like a normal handgun,” Edmonds said.
Despite the weapons in the vehicle, Edmonds said she doesn’t remember any talk of using them.
“At the most, I thought there was going to be a fistfight,” she said.
Guerra Guerra pulled up on a street near the entrance to the wooded area and was waved down by a Altmann, who was emotional and slurring her words, Edmonds said.
“If you’re going to get jumped, why don’t we just pick you up and we can go?” Edmonds said she remembers thinking about Altmann.
The group walked down a path through the woods until they reached a clearing, where around 30 young people were gathered around a bonfire, she said.
Altmann and Guerra Guerra took off looking for some people, while Edmonds stayed behind, mostly keeping to herself because she didn’t know anybody at the gathering except for one person from her elementary school, she said.
Soon a group of around 10 people emerged from field and Guerra Guerra and Altmann approached them. There was yelling and someone threw a punch before Guerra Guerra and another person ended up on the ground, Edmonds said.
That’s when she heard “the noise” before someone said: “Go, go, go.” She took off running back to Guerra Guerra’s vehicle, Edmonds said.
“I thought that it was a gunshot,” she said.
Inside the SUV, Guerra Guerra, Schaap and his girlfriend were silent for a while until Edmonds broke the silence.
“Do you think this is cool?” Edmonds said she asked Guerra Guerra, whose demeanor had changed. “He just seemed sad or off.”
Earlier on Thursday, the 14-person jury heard from London police Det. Jerry Rozic, who played video footage of the wooded area where the bush bash was held.
Rozic described where investigators found a machete and a single shell casing nearby.
“There were lots of drinking containers scattered around,” Rozic said of the crime scene.
Edmonds was scheduled to continue testifying Friday.