Murder trial for 2019 Bloodvein stabbing deaths gets underway

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This article was published 07/04/2021 (1807 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg jury has begun hearing evidence in the trial of a teen accused of stabbing two men to death at a Bloodvein First Nation house party.

Darryl Fisher’s life “was quickly extinguished with four critical stab wounds to his chest and jugular vein,” while his nephew, Zachary Fisher, died after being stabbed 21 times, Crown attorney Mike Desautels told jurors in an opening address Tuesday.

The now-18-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the Jan. 30, 2019, attacks.

Desautels alleged the two victims were drinking with the accused and his friends when “an altercation arose” between Zachary Fisher and the accused, who armed himself with a steak knife.

“Several people at the house party that night witnessed parts of that altercation,” Desautels told jurors.

Trial witnesses will include: a partygoer who is expected to testify she saw the then-16-year-old accused outside following the attack covered in blood; and the accused’s then-girlfriend, who is expected to tell jurors about conversations she overheard between the accused and his mother later that day.

RCMP Cpl. Tarek Rabie and (then) Const. Bridgette Weiss testified they responded to a report of a possible stabbing around 4 a.m., and arrived at an Airport Road home to find the two victims alone and “visibly deceased” in a back porch.

Officers with the RCMP major crime unit took over the investigation and, the following day, identified the accused as a suspect in the killings, court heard. Police arrested the teen at his Bloodvein home that same day.

Under cross-examination, Tarek testified methamphetamine use among both young and older residents is a “significant issue” on the Manitoba First Nation.

Bloodvein is approximately 230 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

The trial is scheduled for two weeks. Desautels told jurors the evidence will come out in pieces, and not always in chronological order.

“The pieces, when taken together will provide as complete a picture as we can” of the night the victims died, Desautels said.

“At the end of the day, when it is all put together, we say that will demonstrate the guilt of (the accused) beyond a reasonable doubt.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca