Victoria police Const. Douglas Hanbury testified Monday that he caught a glimpse of Daniel Jordan Levesque’s blue-purple lips on Aug. 3, 2011, then heard one of the other emergency personnel at the scene say Levesque appeared to be dead.
The 20-year-old Levesque had just been rolled over from his face-down position on a couch, located in the Cormorant Street condominium from which police had received a 911 call about a stabbing a few minutes earlier. The call was placed by Joshua Tyler Bredo, Levesque’s then 26-year-old friend and his boss at a downtown 7-Eleven. Both men were taken to Victoria General Hospital, where Levesque died that evening.
Bredo is on trial in B.C. Supreme Court for first-degree murder in the death of Levesque, an aspiring musician who had moved to Victoria from Revelstoke two months before he died. Bredo is also charged with sexual assault and unlawful confinement.
He has pleaded not guilty on all counts.
The case began with a charge of second-degree murder against Bredo that was stayed due to lack of evidence in December 2011. Investigation proceeded and the first-degree murder charge was laid in December 2012, with the other charges following in December 2013.
Hanbury said police arrived first at the small suite, then were joined by paramedics and firefighters. “It was somewhat chaotic with that many people in a confined area.”
He said the first thing he saw as he entered was blood on a wall just inside the front door.
Victoria police Const. Mike Niederlinski, another of the officers responding, said the possibility of a “knife-wielding subject” or some other danger led him to enter with his pistol drawn.
“It appeared that things had been knocked over, like an altercation,” Hanbury said.
Bredo and Levesque turned out to be the only people in the unit. Bredo was conscious on the floor of the living area, while Levesque was prone on the nearby couch.
Hanbury said Levesque’s position looked odd.
“It looked like one wouldn’t be able to breathe,”
The trial began Jan. 28 and could take up to seven weeks.
