After 13 days of often dramatic testimony, the attempted murder trial resulting from a shooting outside the Sam Steele Hotel Oct. 29, 2009 finally came to an end Thursday with Supreme Court Justice Thomas Melnick setting the case over for decision Dec. 14.

In testimony Thursday, the court heard a new theory on what precipitated the early morning brawl in front of the Sammy that ended with Chad Munroe, 33, shot twice and lying in a pool of blood on the street.

Previous testimony had centred around an alleged drug war between two groups in the city that involved both accused in the case, Kevin William Winters, 51 charged with attempted murder and Donald "Papa" Faid, 55, charged with transferring the weapon used in the crime.

But defence counsel Rick Strahl dismissed this interpretation, saying there may have been another reason that the brawl broke out in front of the hotel just before Munroe took one shot in the leg and another in the arm that just grazed his head.

Moments before the shooting, a bunch of people from one of the feuding gangs had piled into the Sammy where a lot of drug dealing had been going on all night. "It was clear that something was going to happen that night," said Strahl.

However, when Winters and Faid went outside themselves to see what was happening, they were more interested in breaking up the fight than participating in it, he said. "Winters was not a target," Strahl said. "He was merely out there when this melee took place."

Strahl alleged the brawl and subsequent shooting outside had more to do with the drug dealing activities of Crown witness Trevor Cowell than it did with Winters and Faid. He said Faid was dealing drugs for the group led by Munroe and Colin Correia, known as "The Boxer," whose name has come up numerous times in the trial.

Cowell had only been dealing for the Correia-Munroe gang about three weeks "and didn't understand how the game is played," alleged Strahl. When the fight broke out outside, several witnesses testified that it started with an unknown aboriginal man getting the boots put to him because he was supposedly providing "competition" to the drug dealing activities of the Munroe-Correia group, Strahl said.

In saying this he pointed to Cowell's own admission that he was a heavy drug user and an alcoholic and admitted to drinking "at least a dozen beer" on the night of the shooting. As a result, most of his testimony was simply not to be believed including his claim early in the trial that he had seen Faid pass a handgun to Winters minutes before the shooting took place.

Strahl's assertion came on the heels of a Crown comment to Justice Melnick Wednesday that he shouldn't put a lot of reliance on the evidence surrounding the weapon transfer in the case.

Strahl also said the video lineup held by the RCMP after the shooting in which Crown witness Tim Wilson picked Winter was "tainted and unfair" because the other people shown in the video were much younger than Winters and he therefore stood out to this disadvantage.

There were also inconsistencies in the evidence given by two witnesses that lived in the Cranbrook Hotel and saw one of the shots fired from their suites. One of the witness said the shooter was all in black and the other said he wore dark pants with a light top, said Strahl, who also cited case law on the fallibility of eye witness evidence.

Strahl said there was also evidence, albeit tenuous, that another heavy-set man like Winters was seen drinking in the bar just prior to the fight and may have rushed outside with the rest of the bar patrons.

He also pointed to evidence in the trial that Correia after initially running from the scene after shots were fired came back a few minutes later and was seen talking to Munroe and receiving something from him that could have been a gun.

In summing up, Strahl said Cowell, who admitted to being "scared" when he testified, was motivated by "self preservation" and his evidence was "not credible." The identification evidence against Winters was "very weak" and as a result it wasn't proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he was the shooter, Strahl said.

In response, the Crown said the eyewitness evidence provided in the trial was not uncorroborated and not the sole basis of the case. The video provided in the trial clearly showed Winters leaving the bar once the fight started and Cowell's testimony couldn't be entirely dismissed because it was consistent with testimony by other witnesses, said the Crown.

As for Munroe passing a gun to Correia, the Crown said Munroe may have had a gun at the scene but there's no evidence that it was the gun used to shoot him.

Justice Melnick is expected to give a written decision when the trial resumes for decision Dec. 14. If one or both of the accused are found guilty, sentencing will likely be on a later date.