Murder trial opens in 2018 beating death

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/09/2020 (2143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nearly two years to the day after Jason Peter John James was found beaten and stabbed to death inside a Pritchard Avenue home, his four accused killers are standing trial in a Winnipeg courtroom.

Diamond Sky Caribou, 26, Gabriel Todd Mecas, 35, Sarah Louella Osborne, 24, and Faron Alexander Spence, 42, have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the Sept. 22, 2018 killing.

Police were called to the home after receiving a tip someone was hurt and found James, 40, in the basement, severely beaten and stabbed in the chest, Crown attorney Jonathan Avey told jurors in an opening address earlier this week.

Osborne and Caribou were both arrested at the scene. Jurors have been told police found Osborne cleaning up after the assault and that Caribou was arrested with blood on his hands and pants.

Jurors will be shown a police video interview with Mecas “and what he had to say about the night Jason James was killed,” Avey said.

It is one of two jury trials that started in Winnipeg this week, the first in Manitoba since the COVID-19 pandemic led to a shutdown of all jury trial proceedings last March.

The trial is being held in the Winnipeg Law Courts’ largest room, but even it wasn’t big enough to keep all parties the recommended two metres apart.

On Wednesday, lawyers for the Crown and defence, all 10 of them, were seated in two rows of tables, with six of the defence lawyers in one row seated practically elbow to elbow.

Eight jurors were seated in two jury boxes, with the remaining four jurors seated in the body of the courtroom.

Seven sheriff’s officers flanked the four accused, who were seated in four separate prisoner’s boxes.