None of three knives likely to have caused death, court hears
Presented with three knives of varying sizes, the province’s chief forensic pathologist told a Regina jury it was unlikely any were used to kill Trent Gordon.
Dr. Shaun Ladham testified Friday at the second-degree murder trial of Gordon’s older brother, 38-year-old Steven Blaine Pascal.
Ladham — who performed the autopsy two days after the May 25, 2015 homicide — said the cause of Gordon’s death was a combination of blood loss and direct damage to the heart, which was cut through during the delivery of a single stab wound to the 22-year-old man’s chest. The blade went on to pass into Gordon’s left lung.
Ladham drew a few conclusions from an examination of the wound, including that it had been caused by a single-edged blade. He told the jury it was impossible to say whether the blade was serrated or smooth. Ladham measured the entrance wound as 1.7 centimetres long and 0.6 cm wide, adding that the blade travelled between eight and 12 centimetres inside Gordon’s body. The range in depth, Ladham explained, is due to the shifting of heart and lungs while breathing, impacting the distance the blade would have travelled to pass into or through those organs.
Co-Crown prosecutor Mitch Miller presented the pathologist with three different bladed weapons previously entered as exhibits at the trial: a long machete, a butcher knife and a serrated hunting knife. Ladham looked at each in turn before telling the jury none fit with the fatal injury he examined.
Each, he said, was too wide to have caused the wound. Instead, he attributed it to a long, thin blade, such as on an average steak or fileting knife.
“When we look at a knife wound, we can get a knife that is one centimetre wide and the skin wound can be four centimetres wide just because it went in, it was pulled and it cut,” he said. “But we can’t get the reverse. The skin doesn’t stretch and then just snap back. Once it gets cut, it stays.”
Ladham added he didn’t note any indications on Gordon’s body, such as bruises or abrasions, to suggest he had been in a fight.
Court previously heard from a witness who said he saw Pascal pull two separate knives from his pants at different points — one described as a butcher knife and one a hunting knife. The witness told the court Pascal swung the latter at Gordon. Meanwhile, the same witness testified Gordon had a machete at one point.
The jury previously heard from witnesses who described an argument erupting between the brothers over visitors sleeping over at the Athol Street house the two were sharing with their girlfriends.
The Crown closed its case after Ladham’s testimony. On Monday, the jury will find out whether the defence will call evidence.