MINING FOR OPPOSITION Lyndsey Nabata of the Thompson Rivers University chapter of the Kamloops Area Preservation Association shows where she stands on the Ajax debate during a Saturday, Oct. 26, rally outside KGHM Ajax’s office on Seymour Street. About 200 people arrived to demonstrate their opposition to the proposed copper and gold mine, which would be developed south of Aberdeen, while about 25 pro-Ajax individuals were also on hand. To see more photos, go online to kamloopsthisweek.com. Meanwhile, turn to page A4 to learn why Kamloops Physicians for a Healthy Environment will be releasing more information on health-related data connected to the proposed project. Allen Douglas/KTW
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KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK
Tuesday, October 29, 2013 X Volume 26 No. 84 www.kamloopsthisweek.com X 30 cents at Newsstands
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Homicide victim was stabbed six times By Tim Petruk STAFF REPORTER
tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
Torbin Alec stabbed his close friend, Jesse Seymour, six times — including twice directly in the heart — at a house party last summer. So stated the Crown on Monday, Oct. 28, as it laid out its case against the 30-year-old Alec, who is charged with second-degree murder. Seymour, 29, was killed on July 15, 2012, after a fight outside a home at 746 Columbia St. in downtown Kamloops. “A number of friends assembled that night and, in the earlymorning hours, there was a fistfight between Jesse Seymour and Torbin Alec,” special prosecutor Rob Bruneau said in his
opening remarks. “They were, in fact, friends and had known each other a long time. “It’s alleged by the Crown that Mr. Alec took a knife out and stabbed Mr. Seymour six times, twice through the heart area. “Either two of those stabbings, on their own, would have been sufficient to cause death.” Bruneau said Alec then fled the scene and went to his mother’s North Kamloops apartment, where police found him a short time later. “In the apartment, they [police] saw a bucket of bloody water and saw a knife, a blood-covered knife,” Bruneau said. “They seized that knife and it’s alleged that knife was the knife used in the incident.” The start of Alec’s trial was delayed by more than an hour
because of a last-minute decision by Alec’s defence team to switch from a judge-and-jury trial to trial by judge alone. The first day of the trial saw testimony from Dr. John Stefanelli, the forensic pathologist at Royal Inland Hospital who performed Seymour’s autopsy the day after he was murdered. Stefanelli said Seymour was stabbed six times — including twice in the heart and once through the liver. He said Seymour lacked something common in stabbing victims — defence wounds. “The common sights for defence wounds are on the hands or the arms as people throw their hands or arms up to block a blow,” Stefanelli said. “I did not see anything I would
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define as a defence wound at all.” Stefanelli also unfolded the knife seized at the time of Alec’s arrest — a five-inch hunting knife — in the courtroom, agreeing that the blade appeared to be consistent with the wounds he saw on Seymour. In his cross-examination of Stefanelli, defence lawyer Jeremy Jensen implied through questioning that Seymour could have been on top of Alec when the wounds were inflicted. The doctor agreed it would have been “awkward” for some of the wounds to have been created, given their characteristics, if Seymour had been lying on his back when he was stabbed. The second day of the trial, today (Oct. 29), is expected to see testimony from a number of
witnesses who were at the house party, as well as from police officers at the scene and a toxicologist who examined Seymour’s blood after his death. Bruneau said the blood was found to have traces of alcohol and drugs. The trial is expected to run into next week, but Bruneau said it might move faster than anticipated because there is no longer a jury. Bruneau, a Kamloops defence lawyer, was appointed special prosecutor on Alec’s file because Seymour was the estranged sonin-law of former B.C. Lt.-Gov. Stephen Point. At the time of Bruneau’s appointment, the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch said the decision was made to avoid any potential perception of improper influence.
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