A Crown witness wept on the stand on Thursday as she gave a judge details of the kidnapping and murder of a Vancouver drug dealer.

The witness, who can’t be identified due to a publication ban, testified behind a screen in a Vancouver court-room so that she could not be seen by the two accused.

Charles Anthony Leslie, 31, of Surrey and Babak Najafi-Chaghabouri, 27, of North Vancouver have pleaded not guilty in the February 2009 slaying of Ronak “Ronny” Wagad, 31.

They’re alleged to have kidnapped Wagad from his West End apartment, put him in the trunk of a vehicle and driven him out to an isolated area between Chilliwack and Hope and murdered him.

Under questioning from special prosecutor David Butcher, the witness said that Najafi-Chaghabouri told her that he, Leslie, and a third man, Travis Win-terlik, kidnapped somebody and took him out to a forest near Chilliwack.

“He took an axe to his head, a hatch-et . . . and left his body out there,” she told the judge.

The witness said Najafi-Chaghabouri told her about the murder about 24 hours after it happened.

She said she was asked to clean the blood off a necklace owned by Najafi-Chaghabouri.

She said she was told by Najafi-Chaghabouri that “[Leslie] didn’t want to go through with it and that he wanted to leave the guy and go home,” she said. “[Najafi-Chaghabouri] said it was too late, that they’d gone too far.”

She said the motive for the murder was money.

The witness said that after the murder she helped cut up some of Wagad’s possessions, including a phone card and a driver’s licence.

She said there was also cocaine and heroin belonging to Wagad but added she never saw the full amount of the drugs, adding they “were brought into the apartment by [Leslie] and [Najafi-Chaghabouri.]“

At the time of the conversation, Najafi-Chaghabouri was on cocaine and heroin and she was using crack cocaine, said the witness.

Asked what happened to Wagad’s rented Jeep Cherokee after the murder, the witness said “they blew it up or lit it on fire.”

Under cross-examination from Deanne Gaffar, Leslie’s lawyer, the witness agreed that Leslie did not want to kill Wagad, while Najafi-Chaghabouri did.

“When [Najafi-Chaghabouri] explained to you what happened, he told you it was him, [Najafi-Chagha-bouri], that wanted to kill Ronak, that [Leslie] did not want to kill Ronak,” said Gaffar.

“Yes,” she replied.

“He told you [Leslie] was trying to stop him,” said Gaffar.

“Yes,” she said.

kfraser@theprovince.com

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Article source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/description-drug-dealers-murder-brings-witness-tears-101711601.html