Friends and family of victim Lynn Kalmring leave the Kelowna court house Friday after hearing the last of Keith Gregory Wiens' testimony.

(JULIE WHITTET / iNFOnews.ca)

For the first time today members of the public heard Keith Gregory Wiens' account of the events that led up the tragic death of Lynn Kalmring. He described how the last day they spent together began pleasantly but ended with a fatal shooting.

Wiens continued his testimony today in Kelowna Supreme Court. He stands accused of second degree murder in the 2011 shooting death of Kalmring, his common-law partner.

On August 15, 2011 Wiens and Kalmring shared a barbeque dinner at their Penticton residence after returning from a motorbike trip to Naramata. Wiens recalls phoning a friend to arrange a golf game for the following day.

After dinner the two fixed themselves drinks of vodka and coke and decided to play a game of Nintendo Wii. They played often, he says, placing bets on who would win. The bets were paid in sexual favours. Kalmring won the game that night and Wiens says he teased her to point out it wasn't always him winning the bets.

Around 10:40 p.m. Wiens decided to go to bed and on his pillow found items including a dildo, small whip and lubricant. He moved them onto his bedside table, brushed his teeth and went to bed. When Kalmring noticed, he explained he was tired and wanted to sleep.

It was at that point Wiens says the two began to argue.

Kalmring was offended he didn't want to sleep with her, asking him if she was “too fat, too ugly...not good enough for you?” he says. She was also concerned if he moved to Grand Prairie for work he would meet another woman and persisted in her questioning to the point where he told her to sleep in the guest bedroom.

“I said I thought she was being crazy,” he says and told her, “quit bothering me.”

The fight escalated to the point where they were both “being mean” he says.

“She was becoming extremely agitated,” using the words “fuck you,” he says, so he suggested she leave the house and get a motel room.

By 11:40 p.m the fight subsided and Wiens says he fell sound asleep. It was also around that time Shelley Pertelson testified she was on the phone with Kalmring - her sister.

Wiens says the next thing he knew, he was woken by a hit to his head.

“I'd been assaulted,” he says and felt the situation was “going downhill quickly,” with Kalmring becoming hysterical about not wanting to leave the house. 

"Her eyes were bugging out," he says.

At one point Kalmring went into the kitchen and Wiens says he closed the bedroom door bracing it with a small wooden box.

“I knew I was in some serious trouble,” he says.

Acting on a "gut instinct" he armed himself with a loaded semi-automatic handgun he kept in his dresser drawer.

“I feared Lynn. She was not Lynn,” he says.

When she came through the door she raised a large kitchen knife towards his neck area and all within one second he fired a gunshot that sent Kalmring to the floor.

“I remember seeing her knees buckle,” he says and seeing her fall into a sitting position, hearing her exhale her last breath before her head fell back onto the floor.

This is exactly how her body lay before he turned himself into police that night, he told the court. The extent of his actions following the shooting involved throwing up in the ensuite bathroom toilet and then preparing a washcloth “to get some of the blood off” Kalmring's body.

When he realized the wound was too severe, he lay the cloth on the bed and dialed 911 to report the shooting. He says he was on the phone continuously up until surrendering to police when they arrived at the residence in the early hours of August 16.

Wiens will take the stand again tomorrow for the crown's cross-examination.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Julie Whittet at jwhittet@infotelnews.ca or call (250)718-0428.

News from © iNFOnews, 2013