Accused killer says he stabbed cellmate in self-defence
Warning: Graphic content
The man accused of killing Christopher Van Camp in the Saskatchewan Penitentiary says Van Camp was paranoid and tried to stab him, forcing him to defend himself.
Tyler Vandewater, taking the stand Friday in Prince Albert Court of Queen’s Bench, is charged with second-degree murder in Van Camp’s 2017 death. Van Camp was found dead in the prison cell they shared on June 7, hours after he was returned to the penitentiary following an overdose while on parole.
The two men had shared a cell months before Van Camp was released on parole, court heard. Vandewater said he “considered him my brother.” When Van Camp was brought to his cell on the night of June 6, they exchanged a pleasant greeting, Vandewater testified.
He told court he gave Van Camp back his blade, which he had stored in a void under his desk. Around an hour later, he felt something about Van Camp’s behaviour was unusual, he said.
Van Camp told nearby inmates that people were going to get him and he remembers telling Van Camp to “chill out,” Vandewater said.
At that point, he began to grow nervous because Van Camp was bigger than him and he had seen Van Camp knock out other inmates with one punch during socalled “discipline” meted out by inmates on the range, he testified.
They were about one foot away from each other when Van Camp “starts trying to stab me on the side,” he said.
According to Vandewater, he pushed Van Camp into the desk, drew his own homemade knife and “started trying to stab him in the face.”
As they grappled, he stabbed Van Camp in the back, then blacked out — and the next thing he remembers, he had Van Camp pinned between the toilet and the wall and “was stomping on his face,” he testified.
Vandewater said the entire fight lasted around a minute to a minute and a half. He said he kept stabbing Van Camp because it didn’t seem like it was having any effect.
“It didn’t feel like it was going in and he kept fighting, so I kept going,” Vandewater said.
Earlier in the day, forensic pathologist Dr. Shaun Ladham told court he counted 26 wounds on Van Camp’s head area, 25 on his back and four on his chest. The cause of death was blood loss and a collapsed lung.
Van Camp was alive for “minutes, not hours” after he was attacked in his cell, Ladham said.
Lauren Laithwaite, Van Camp’s mother, said she didn’t believe a word of Vandewater’s testimony.
“It doesn’t make sense based on what the coroner said, that Christopher had no defensive or offensive wounds on him,” she said outside court.
“He’s never been charged with any violence in jail. That goes against what the guards have said. The friends that know him say he’s not a violent person. Would he fight if he was protecting someone or helping? Yes, but he wouldn’t instigate.”
Laithwaite said Friday was the most difficult day of the trial for her so far. The only thing she’s learned is the “extreme” manner in which her son died, she said.
“No one wants to see their child in that condition.”
The trial is expected to wrap up next week.
— With files from Jayda Noyes, Prince Albert Daily Herald