The bartender who served Cory Sater the night he was allegedly involved in a hit-and-run crash that killed two people testified Friday that Sater had been cut off at the bar.
Louise Richez, who was a bartender at the Lougheed Village Pub on Feb. 18, 2011, told the court she had served Sater three double rye and cokes and a Jägerbomb - a mix of Jägermeister and Red Bull. She added that her colleague, bartender Donna Haldane, had also been serving Sater when the two decided to cut him off.
"He was getting a bit hyperactive, louder," Richez said. "I didn't have too many problems with him. Just by me watching him, he had had enough.
"Yes, he was intoxicated," she added.
When Crown counsel Chris McPherson asked the witness whether she believed Sater was safe to drive at that point, she said "no."
Defence lawyer Rishi Gill jumped on the witness' statement, saying if Sater was as intoxicated as she said, she would have called him a cab.
She responded by telling the court that she assumed that Sater would be going to the residence of Troy McClure, the man with whom Sater had been drinking, and who she knew lived in the Lougheed Village neighbourhood.
"Apparently, I made a bad assumption," she said.
Sater eventually left the establishment with Lloyd Smith. The two intended to go to Sater's home in Coquitlam, retrieve some money and find another bar.
Smith previously testified that the pair were returning to the Lougheed Highway and North Road area when the collision occurred.
Charlene Reaveley, a Port Coquitlam mother of four, and Lorraine Cruz were killed instantly in the crash and Cruz's boyfriend Paulo Calimbahin suffered serious injuries.
The trial continues.
