The first-degree murder trial of Joseph Knelsen ended abruptly Monday with a guilty plea to second-degree murder by the 46-year-old man.
Knelsen had originally pleaded not guilty in the March 7, 2011, death of Gordon Berg in a Langford home. Knelsen was charged with first-degree murder, break-and-enter, forcible confinement, assault with a weapon and uttering threats.
The plea to the lesser charge of second-degree murder came on the sixth day of Knelsen’s B.C. Supreme Court trial. Without it, the trial was expected to last a month.
Justice Geoffrey Gaul discharged jury members.
“This is a decision [Knelsen] is entitled to make,” Gaul explained. “I find it an appropriate plea in the circumstances.”
The eight-man, four-woman jury had heard that Berg, a tenant at the Jeanine Drive home along with his girlfriend, Laura Carey, was found dead in a pool of blood by West Shore RCMP. He had suffered at least five stab wounds and 10 blows to the head, with crime-scene photos showing blood stains on the floor, kitchen appliances and a knife.
Knelsen was a former tenant of the home and had a brief intimate relationship with Shannon Henson, co-owner of the residence with her husband, Don Frewing, who was teaching up-Island when the death occurred.
Court was told that Berg and Carey were playing cards on the bed in their suite during the early-morning hours of March 7, 2011, when a masked man burst through the window and shot bear spray at them. Carey managed to get away and headed upstairs, thinking Berg would follow, Crown counsel Tamara Hodge said at the outset of the trial.
Hodge said that Carey huddled with Henson but the two women were soon confronted by a man wielding a hammer, and both recognized him as Knelsen.
Henson managed to calm Knelsen down and he eventually left, Hodge said.
She said the women ended up going to a hotel, where they consumed drugs. The police weren’t told about the crime until Frewing called them on the evening of March 8.
Wire cutters, knives and a hammer were among the items recovered later from the backyard, along with what appeared to be a homemade mask.
A sentencing hearing for Knelsen is scheduled for June 10. The other charges against him will be dealt with at that time.
