A Brampton court heard closing arguments Thursday in the first-degree murder trial of Rafal LaSota and Michelle Liard, the couple accused of killing a 13-year-old Mississauga girl in 2008.
Alexandra Firgin-Hewie was found dead outside a home in Mississauga on Dec. 11, 2008. Police said she was stabbed 37 times.
Police charged former fiancées Liard, now 21 and LaSota, now 28, with first-degree murder. The couple lived in the basement of the house next to which Firgin-Hewie's body was found.
Police said at the time of the arrest that the accused "can be classified as friends" of Firgin-Hewie.
Thursday, LaSota's lawyer argued that his client may be guilty of manslaughter, but said he was not guilty of the first-degree murder charge.
LaSota was drunk and high on drugs and he snapped when he stabbed Firgin-Hewie in his bedroom in 2008, the lawyer said.
"He just snapped. Thirty-seven stab wounds, that's rage that speaks to a frenzied attack," LaSota's lawyer said.
Liard's lawyer said there is no evidence to suggest that she planned to kill Firgin-Hewie with LaSota.
The court has already heard that LaSota cleaned up the crime scene after Firgin-Hewie was stabbed, and that Liard was in the house for eight hours after the girl was killed.
The Crown said the jury must find both Liard and LaSota guilty of first-degree murder.
"Alexandra didn't stand a chance. It was premeditated murder involving two people," the Crown argued.
Firgin-Hewie was in Grade 8 and had moved to Mississauga from Scugog Island, near Port Perry, with her father only months before she was killed.
On Thursday, members of her family packed the courtroom to hear the closing arguments.
With files from CTV Toronto's John Musselman
