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A Toronto woman wanted by Los Angeles police for a beer bottle slashing of Leonardo DiCaprio is facing similar charges in Toronto involving a man who died moments after he was assaulted, the Sun has learned.
Aretha Wilson has been in and out of court for the last 18 months, charged with hitting ex-boyfriend Wyatt Cote with a broken glass while at his apartment in 2006.
Moments after Cote was assaulted, he was dead on the ground outside his eighth floor Cambridge Ave. apartment.
While 37-year-old Wilson awaits her next court appearance here, the Los Angeles Police Department wants her back in the United States.
The tale begins in the summer of 2005.
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It was the early morning hours of June 17 at a posh Hollywood party thrown by Rick Salomon, who just two years earlier surfaced as a character in the scandalous home-made sex tape with hotel heiress Paris Hilton.
Party guest Leonardo DiCaprio, on a break from filming The Departed, was approached by Wilson, 37, around 4 a.m., LAPD officer Karen Smith said yesterday.
"Apparently Leonardo recognized this woman as a friend's ex-girlfriend," Smith said.
"As he turned away to walk away from her, he felt something wet on his back. When he turned around, she hit him on the neck and side of his head with a glass. The glass broke, cut him on the neck and ear and he was transported by a private party to a local hospital."
The attack left DiCaprio with 17 stitches -- 10 to his ear and seven to his neck.
On July 12, 2005, an arrest warrant was issued for Wilson, wanted on one count of assault with a deadly weapon, Sandi Gibbons, an L.A. district attorney's office spokesman, said.
It's unknown when Wilson left the United States, but her next run-in with police would stem from a Super Bowl Sunday incident in Toronto the following year.
She was among a group of people at Wyatt Cote's apartment Feb. 5, 2006, when police allege she assaulted the 34-year-old man with a broken glass.
Moments later, Cote was dead.
A source close to the case said Wilson was Cote's ex.
"He was trying to get rid of her, trying to get her out of the apartment," the source said. "I guess she was fairly volatile."
A Canada-wide warrant was issued for Wilson, wanted on charges of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm, Toronto Police Det. Ed Campbell said.
"The facts say that he took his own life," Campbell said in explaining why no murder charges were laid.
According to the source, Cote had never shown signs of depression before he went over his eighth-floor balcony.
"The police couldn't ascertain to what happened in the apartment with the witness that was there," the source said. "It was more of a slip or an accidental fall than him just jumping up on the balcony and going over."
Wilson fled to Nova Scotia before turning herself in to Toronto Police that July, Campbell said.
She was let out on bail and last month appeared in court for the Crown's presentation of their case.
Defence will have their day in court next month.
Los Angeles authorities were contacted about her trial by Sun columnist Mark Bonokoski earlier this week. Police there say they will likely seek an extradition order for Wilson to face her charges against DiCaprio.
But extradition won't be possible until her case here has gone through, Campbell said.
"They wouldn't get an extradition until our case was done," Campbell said. "Nobody has called me. Nobody has said they want extradition."
The L.A. district attorney can only go through with extradition once local police apply for it, Gibbons said.
Then it's up to DiCaprio to decide whether he wants to proceed.