A kidnapping victim told a courtroom Tuesday that he continued to do business with the man who cut off his finger because he didn’t think he had a choice.
The trial for Kyle Truong, who goes by alias Tho Quach, continued at the Superior Court of Justice in Thunder Bay on Tuesday. Police charged Truong as well as several other men with numerous kidnapping and assault offences that happened in 2009 and 2010.
One of those men was Steven Leeson, who was sentenced to nine years in prison earlier this year, for his involvement.
Truong has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and forcible confinement to incidents that happened in 2009, but pleaded not guilty to four other charges of forcible confinement, aggravated assault, use of a firearm and kidnapping.
Assistant Crown Attorney Elaine Burton called Miroslav “Mario” Vnuko to the stand. Vnuko came to Canada from Czechoslovakia in 1989 and then moved to Thunder Bay in 2002 to find work.
Vnuko, who has a criminal record, said he used cocaine and started to sell it for a man he said he later learned was Truong. He told the court that his supply of cocaine came from Leeson.
The court heard that the men continued to do business with each other, but in September 2009, Vnuko and his then girlfriend Gawronski, who testified in court Monday, were called to the Kingsway hotel where they were tied up with duct tape. The incident led to Vnuko having his left pinky cut off.
“I believe Leeson was holding me down and Truong cut off my finger,” Vnuko told the courtroom. “It was pliers for cutting tree branches off. After that, they let us go. Truong left and Leeson cut the tape off me and then Gawronski.”
“We just took the rest of my finger. I flushed it down the toilet.”
Vnuko also told of an incident where he was choked with a seatbelt, but it was when Truong allegedly put a gun to his head that he decided he had an enough. It was that alleged incident that sent Vnuko to police.
Vnuko added that he hadn’t spoken to Gawronski about what had happened.
During cross-examination, Truong’s lawyer, Peter Thorning, wanted to clear up some inconsistencies in Vnuko’s story.
Thorning wanted to know if Vnuko and Gawronski had talked about what had happened, specifically the incident where pliers were used to remove Gawronski’s tooth.
Thorning pointed out that Vnuko didn’t mention during his statement to police that Truong allegedly used pliers to break off Gawronski’s tooth. He suggested that the only reason Vnuko brought up the pliers again later on was that he and Gawronski talked about it.
“I’m going to suggest to you about this fact about the pliers didn’t happen and that’s why you didn’t tell police,” he said.
“My client you claim had pliers in her mouth and then you blacked out. You went home and she showed you her missing tooth and you assumed my client did it.”
The trial continues on Wednesday.
