As he lay dying on a downtown balcony, a bloodied Kamloops man pointed the finger at his neighbour, telling a Mountie “Jason did it.”
That’s what a judge was told Tuesday as Jason Michael Holm’s first-degree murder trial got underway in B.C. Supreme Court. The 39-year-old stands accused in the death of Paul Samuel Whitten, also 39, who was stabbed to death on Clarke Street in the West End on Aug. 2, 2020.
Court heard Holm and Whitten were neighbours, both residing in Clarke Street apartments.
In his opening statement to B.C. Supreme Court Justice Joel Groves, Crown prosecutor Tim Livingston said Whitten was stabbed 49 times. He said Holm was arrested not long after the incident and police seized a knife from his apartment.
The first witness called Tuesday by the Crown was RCMP Const. Carolyn Braun, who broke down in tears while describing the bloody scene.
Braun said she and another constable were the first officers to arrive at the scene. She said she saw a man covered in blood on a second-storey balcony. He was calling for help.
Braun told court she approached the man and asked him his name.
“He told me Paul,” she said. “I asked, ‘Paul, who did this?’ He said, ‘Jason did it.’”
Braun said Whitten was in obvious distress. She described large gashes on his chest, back and arms.
“Blood was everywhere — all over him, all over the walkway,” she said.
“He was asking for help. You could see in his face, he was begging for help. I just said to him, ‘Paul, stay with me, keep breathing. I’ve got the ambulance coming. Stay with me — we’re going to help you.’”
Braun said she helped paramedics carry Whitten to a waiting ambulance and felt his body go limp along the way.
Whitten was pronounced dead not long after he arrived at Royal Inland Hospital.
Holm’s trial is slated to run more than two weeks, during which time Groves is expected to be asked to consider whether the accused was not criminally responsible by way of a mental disorder.
Livingston said court will hear from neighbours who lived near Holm and Whitten, some of whom will describe Holm's "erratic" behaviour in the days leading up to Whitten's death.
Holm was found unfit for trial in 2021, then declared fit last year.
