(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

A Kamloops man accused of stabbing four people in 2020 told police when he was being arrested that he was trying to protect his fiancé.

That's according to audio evidence presented to a Kamloops jury in which Michael Wayne Palmer is heard candidly claiming to police he was trying to save his fiancé or himself that night and about his frustrations with crime at his apartment.

Crown prosecutor Laura Drake, during her opening statement to the jury, described it as a strange, rambling account.

On June 4, the jury heard the recordings of Palmer speaking to the officer who arrested him, first outside the scene. For the nearly ten-minute drive from there to the Kamloops RCMP detachment, he continues and the officer says almost nothing. He continues as he's lodged into cells. He was believed to be sober and was reminded several times of his right to a lawyer.

"I was scared I was going to end up being murdered tonight, and those were the people who were going to make it happen," Palmer can be heard saying on the recording.

On March 29, 2020, he was arrested at 205 Carson Crescent around 1 a.m.

The trial is expected to last five weeks with Palmer charged with the second-degree murder of Kevin White and the attempted murder of Ian McKay, David Grondberg and Caleb Crookes.

White had already died inside his apartment before Const. Howard Morine got to the scene, the jury heard.

When he got to the apartment, Morine and two other officers went to Palmer's third-floor apartment to see if anyone was inside. They were called back down shortly after as Palmer approached an officer outside.

"He was quite talkative, very friendly," Morine told the court. "It was a casual conversation."

Palmer didn't challenge the officer when told he was under arrest. He identified himself candidly and was told he was under arrest. Much of what he said was difficult to decipher in the courtroom, often interrupted by wind or the noise of the drive back to the police station.

Morine spoke very little while they drove, but Palmer filled the silence. At one point he claimed people were going to "murder (his) woman."

"So I killed them," he said while handcuffed in the police car.

By 6 a.m., Palmer was interviewed by homicide investigator Cpl. Dave Marshall.

The jury hasn't heard evidence so far of the circumstances of the people who were stabbed.

The five-week trial started June 2, more than five years after the alleged murder and attempted murders.

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