‘There was blood all over the place’
Crown says accused went to warehouse where he worked ‘with a plan to kill’
Photographs shown in an Edmonton courtroom Tuesday depict a chaotic crime scene with the blood of six people spilled across a warehouse where a double murder took place in 2014.
Jayme Pasieka, 32, is on trial for two counts of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder and aggravated assault. He is accused of stabbing six people — including Fitzroy Harris, 50, and Thierno Bah, 41, who both died — at the 16104 121A Ave. Loblaw warehouse where he was an employee on Feb. 28, 2014.
In an opening statement, assistant chief Crown prosecutor Kim Goddard told the jury this is not a case of “whodunnit.” Instead, she said jurors must determine if Pasieka intended to kill his victims, and whether or not the attack was planned and deliberate.
Goddard will argue that Pasieka walked through the warehouse intent on stabbing any co-workers who crossed his path.
“He went there with a plan to kill everyone and anyone who got in his way,” Goddard said.
Pasieka sat calmly and observed the court proceedings. When he stood and quietly entered notguilty pleas to each charge, a woman in the gallery began to cry.
Edmonton police Const. Mark Woronuk testified that though officers used pylons and evidence markers to track blood trails, the number of victims meant DNA testing was required to make sense of the crime scene.
“There was blood all over the place. It was hard to identify whose was whose,” Woronuk said.
Police located Pasieka’s 1999 Ford Explorer parked in the area of 39 Street between 73 and 74 avenues. Once in custody, Pasieka was searched, and his clothing and vehicle seized.
Two knives with apparent blood stains were found in the front seat of his Explorer, and two other blades were tucked into the black vest Pasieka had been wearing. Court also heard police found knife boxes and torn up receipts for knives purchased earlier in the day.
Court heard investigators were able to match the blood of one of the surviving victims to stains on a hoodie seized by investigators.
The trial is scheduled to run for two weeks, and the four men who survived being stabbed are expected to testify Wednesday.