Police called to residence three times day victim was stabbed

Police were called to the westside residence of Francis Candice (Candy) Little Light three times the day she was stabbed to death, a jury was told Tuesday.

The third time police found Little Light slouched over on the floor, surrounded by a pool of her own blood.

Testifying Tuesday on day two of the manslaughter trial against Jillian Wendy Across The Mountain, Const. Nicole Arvay of the Lethbridge Police Service said the first visit on the morning of Feb. 7, 2016 was in response to a complaint that someone was kicking doors and yelling in a westside apartment building. When Arvay arrived and went to the victim’s apartment, Across The Mountain answered the door. She was polite and co-operative, while Little Light, who had been asleep on the couch when police arrived, was highly intoxicated and aggressive, and yelled at police to get out of her home.

“She was belligerent, but nothing we’re not used to,” Arvay testified.

Even when Little Light moved toward the officer in a threatening manner, Arvay didn’t feel physically threatened or feel she needed to arrest the upset woman. And neither did the officer believe Across The Mountain was in any danger.

“I didn’t feel there was domestic violence.”

When officers were called back to the residence about 10 hours later, Little Light was dead and Across The Mountain was gone. Four others who discovered the body were in the room, however, including one person who was still on the phone with a 911 operator. None of the four had weapons or blood on them, Arvay told court.

During Monday’s hearing, court was told Little Light had been stabbed three times, including once in the upper left arm where an artery was cut. The knife with Little Light’s blood on it was found behind a radiator in the entry room to the apartment building.

Crown witness Brandon Plaited Hair, who was in his brother’s apartment in the same building, testified Tuesday he heard a drunken Little Light yelling and threatening to kill his mother if she wasn’t told where she could find Across The Mountain. Later in the afternoon he saw Across the Mountain outside the apartment building.

“I saw her leaving the building in a rush,” Plaited Hair said. “She kept looking back.”

Pauline Wells told court she was in the apartment building in the morning and planned to visit Little Light, but when she heard two or three people arguing in Little Light’s apartment, she decided to leave, instead.

“I heard them fighting,” she testified.

When she returned later in the day police were already there.

Defence lawyer Michael Dietrich, who suggested Little Light became violent when she was drunk, also suggested Wells only heard Little Light yelling and didn’t hear any other voices. But Wells disagreed.

“She was bitching somebody out,” Wells said.

The Crown anticipates calling several witnesses to the stand today, including the medical examiner and police and civilian witnesses.