Three years ago, Erick Tello-Arias was stabbed to death during the May long weekend.

After three weeks, the second-degree murder trial for the man accused of his death has wrapped up with closing arguments.

Dillon Childs family and friends sat in the Barrie courtroom on Tuesday to hear the Crown and defence try to sway the 12 jury members before they head off to deliberate.

Defence lawyer Gregory Leslie spent two hours arguing his client was a scared victim in 2016 on the night Tello-Arias died. Leslie played several video clips from Childs’ taped interview with police after his arrest where he said he was defending himself.

“His reaction is in self-defence,” Leslie said. “He believes it is him or Tello-Arias.”

The defence asked the jury to ignore that Childs was selling drugs, saying the information was irrelevant to the murder charge against him. Childs has said that he sold two Xanax pills to the victim and that Tello-Arias later robbed him of more. The two men ended up confronting each other, and that’s when the altercation took place, ending with Tello-Arias stabbed and bleeding to death in the street.

The Crown argued that the accused is a drug dealer who knew precisely what he was doing. “He was not acting in self-defence. There was no justification for the stabbing,” said Crown attorney Julie Janiuk.

The Crown spent the afternoon telling the jury not to feel sorry for Childs and that he found himself in a “situation of his own doing.” The Crown went further stating, “When he stabbed him, he intended to kill him or cause bodily harm.”

The judge began instructing the jury last this afternoon, and the jury is expected to begin deliberations by noon on Wednesday.