A Crown witness testifying in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday admitted he fabricated parts of the statement he gave police after a 15-year-old boy was fatally stabbed.
Justin Wendland, a Victoria High School student, died June 3, 2010, shortly after he was stabbed twice at a bus stop outside the Times Colonist building on Douglas Street.
Cory Daniel Barry, 41, is on trial before Justice Brian MacKenzie. He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
Adam Storie told the court that he was waiting for a bus, listening to music through one ear bud, when he noticed Wendland nearby. There were 10 to 15 people at the bus stop that evening, the 19-year-old said.
A male on a bicycle stopped briefly and had a conversation with Wendland before continuing on his way, Storie testified.
An older male was walking south on Douglas with a brown pit bull, he said. “He walked up to the teenage boy and started talking to him in a frightening manner.”
Storie said he wasn’t paying much attention but the conversation “seemed a little louder than it should have been, louder than people should talk to each other.”
The older man drew a knife and stabbed Wendland before running down Douglas and onto Kings Road, Storie testified. He described the knife as “a longer, kitchen-style knife … that you would usually cut meat [with].”
But defence counsel Jeff Johnston said Storie’s testimony was inconsistent with the 22-page statement he gave police hours after the incident.
At the time, Storie told police the weapon was not a kitchen knife but a hunting knife with metal bars to keep the hand from sliding forward.
He told police Wendland and the man had a five-minute conversation laced with profanity before they began shoving each other. The man then brandished the knife for a full minute before stabbing Wendland, Storie said in his police statement.
When questioned by Johnston, Storie said he embellished his story for the police because he was upset.
The altercation might have taken one or two minutes and not five minutes, he testified.
As for his earlier statement that the two engaged in shoving, Storie told the court: “I believe I’m wrong.”
The chain of events was traumatizing, he said. “That’s something that haunts your life, watching someone die in front of you.”
Barry went to the Victoria Police Department shortly after the stabbing, saying people were chasing him.
He was charged with aggravated assault but the charge was elevated to murder after Wendland died.
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