(GLYNN BROTHEN / iNFOnews.ca)
February 03, 2015 - 9:54 AM
KAMLOOPS - The victim of a deadly knife attack in Lytton suffered what a forensic pathologist called “defensive wounds” to his arm, fingers and wrist.
Dr. James McNaughton testified in B.C. Supreme Court Monday on results of an autopsy he performed on Albert Michell about one week after was found dead in an apartment.
Cory Bird, 27, is charged with second-degree murder in Michell's death in August 2008.
Court heard there were 73 stab wounds on Michell’s body, in his trunk area extending to his neck.
McNaughton said wounds in his neck missed the major artery, vein, the voice box and windpipe, all of which typically result in death when they are struck with a knife.
McNaughton testified that Michell had wounds to his arm, fingers and wrist, and said that such injuries are typically suffered when someone tries to fend off an attack.
A number of the wounds penetrated Michell’s abdominal wall.
In its opening address to the jury, the Crown said Bird initially told RCMP he acted in self-defence, but later admitted that wasn’t true.
Earlier in the trial, an adult basic-education instructor who was an acquaintance of Michell testified he drank three beers and smoked marijuana with Michell and Bird at an apartment unit on Aug. 13 before going home to his own unit.
He testified there was no confrontation in the room that evening.
The Crown alleges Bird killed Michell later that night or in the hours of the next morning before fleeing to Montreal.
Crown prosecutor Frank Caputo said during his opening address to the jury last week that Bird hitchhiked across the country after the murder, eventually being taken into custody following a brief standoff with police in Montreal, during which Bird admitted to officers he had killed a man in B.C.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2015