Jury reviewing video footage in case of stabbed teenager

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This article was published 26/10/2017 (2961 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A jury tasked with deciding the fate of a Winnipeg teen accused of second-degree murder after a stabbing at a city school is reviewing video footage police gathered as part of the homicide investigation.

Brett Bourne, 17, was fatally stabbed June 2, 2015, during a noon-hour fight at Kelvin High School.

The boy accused of killing him was also 17 at the time and can’t be identified under a publication ban. He’s pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and his scheduled 17-day trial began earlier this week with testimony from police who responded to the Kingsway school grounds.

On Thursday, jurors heard testimony from a homicide unit investigator who created a timeline using video clips sourced from school cameras, as well as from a student’s camera.

The student captured the aftermath, but not the stabbing itself, court heard. He turned over his memory card to police and is expected to testify in the trial, along with friends of the accused and the ex-girlfriend of the deceased.

Winnipeg Police Service homicide unit Det. Terry Bambrick testified Thursday morning he put together a timeline of events using video footage, which also served to verify statements from several of the high school students who spoke to police in the aftermath of the stabbing. Jurors watched some of the clips in court as Bambrick was asked to identify key individuals, including the accused, as they appeared.

In her opening statement to the jury Monday, attorney Krista Berkis outlined the Crown’s theory of what led to Bourne’s death.

Prosecutors believe Bourne was cycling by the high school that day when he saw his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend and tried to start a fight. The other boy didn’t want to fight, the Crown said. But one of his friends, the accused, saw Bourne yelling across the street from the school and went to get a knife. Bourne was unarmed when he ventured onto school property and was stabbed in the torso, the Crown will argue.

Berkis told the jury the accused staged an injury after the stabbing and told police he’d been cut by the victim.

Jurors also heard Thursday from WPS Const. Ian Lobban, who testified the accused showed up at Kelvin High School with his mother after the stabbing with a bandage on his left arm. He said he’d been cut during a fight with Bourne and another teen, but didn’t need medical treatment.

In the Crown’s theory of the case, the accused fled school property after the stabbing and was dropped off at a friend’s house, where he cleaned the weapon, cut himself with a utility knife, cleaned the cut and then went home, only to return to the school later with his mother.

The accused is presumed innocent. He is being represented by defence lawyer Greg Brodsky as the trial continues.

katie.may@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @thatkatiemay