THUNDER BAY — Neither witness testifying against Telique Ricketts says they saw him pull the trigger.
Both witnesses were there the night Adrian Richardson was shot and killed and have already pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Ricketts’ lawyer argued the two have been working together to cover up who the shooter was, and frame his client.
"You know you're lying," defence lawyer Hussein Aly said to Jacob Green following his testimony Thursday, throwing into question his reliability.
Richardson was shot and killed on May 2, 2022 during a robbery in his Current River apartment. Green and Ricketts, alongside Aiden Collander and Henok Banjaw, were initially charged with first-degree murder in the killing. Ricketts is currently being tried by a jury for second-degree murder.
Green pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2024 and was sentenced in December of that year to four years in jail. With credit for time served, he only had 75 days left to serve. Green testified the day after Collander, who also pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Richardson’s death — Collander is still awaiting conviction and sentencing.
Banjaw was in court earlier in April — the details of that appearance are subject to a publication ban until Ricketts’ trial is complete.
On Thursday, while being questioned by Crown attorney Trevor Jukes, Green said numerous times he was nervous and scared throughout the evening after learning they were going to commit a robbery — especially one involving a weapon. Like Collander, he outlined the evening’s initial plans of meeting at a Victoria Avenue apartment and going clubbing; those plans then turned into breaking into Richardson’s apartment to steal from him.
Green also testified that it was Ricketts who had the gun while they were in the vehicle, that Collander used the weapon to smash the glass in Richardson’s Hodder Avenue apartment door and the three entered the home, but said Ricketts had the gun again before they split up to search the apartment.
Green said Collander alone happened upon Richardson hiding in a bedroom closet and yelled out. When that happened, Green said he was searching the other bedroom with Ricketts.
After Collander yelled, he said Ricketts (who was between himself and the bedroom door) ran out of the room and that he then heard a gunshot. On cross-examination by Aly, Green agreed that he inferred Ricketts pulled the trigger but didn’t actually see it.
On Wednesday, Collander testified that the gunshot happened behind him while he was running out of the other bedroom into the apartment’s kitchen area.
Green said he didn’t see the gun again until later that night when they were back at the Victoria Avenue apartment, on a kitchen counter.
Like he did with Collander on Wednesday, Aly argued it was Collander who shot Richardson after a struggle with the victim — a struggle that also involved Green.
On the first day of the trial, Thunder Bay police Det.-Const. Derek How testified that Green “could not be excluded” as a source of DNA in blood found in the vehicle the four men used the night of the robbery. Aly questioned how else Green's blood could have been found in the vehicle, Green said he didn't know.
Under continued cross-examination Thursday afternoon, Aly pulled up a long series of texts (he had questioned Collander about many of them the previous day) that appeared to show Green, Collander and others working together to sell drugs.
Green denied the messages, sent under name “Jake Cook”, were from him. However, Collander had identified the messages as being between himself and Green the previous day. Green also conceded that his mother’s last name was Cook.
Aly also pointed to one May 15, 2022 message in particular that showed “Jake Cook” saying he had court in two days. He then produced a court docket from May 17 that had Green on it with the same charges as a bail recognizance on drug charges he showed Green earlier.
Throughout his testimony, Green said he didn’t remember the conversation or many other details he was confronted with and denied he knew the meanings of various slang being used in the text chat. He denied that he and Collander worked together to sell drugs.
“That means you’re willing to lie through your teeth,” Aly said.
Aly accused Green and Collander of making up a story together about who killed Richardson to avoid a potential life sentence under the initial first-degree murder charges.
“It was a plan to blame the outsider. You didn’t care about Telique Ricketts,” Aly said, adding that Green would do or say whatever he needed to in order to get the outcome he wanted.
Court was briefly back in session on Friday morning where the trial was scheduled to continue on April 29.
