Men fought a lot, murder trial told

Basement tenant tells court arguments between roommates upstairs escalated in months before killing

Arguments between two roommates escalated in the months prior to the death of one of the men, a neighbour testified in court in Kelowna Wednesday morning.

Angelica Taylor lived in the downstairs suite at 941 Bernard Ave., below Daniel Ruff and Warren Welters, for just over a year before the killing.

Ruff is accused of second-degree murder in the death of Welters, who was found dead in his room on June 14, 2015.

Taylor told the jury she often saw the two men arguing about bills and who paid what.

She also said she heard frequent physical fights between them.

“I would hear through the floor, and me and Warren would usually chat about it the next day,” she said. “Most of the physical fights would be later at night in the house.”

When asked how she knew the men were in a physical fight, Taylor laughed.

“You can hear when people are rolling on the ground punching each other,” she said.

In the months leading up to Welters’ death, Taylor said the verbal and physical fights became more frequent.

“Warren was really trying to evict Dan, and I was trying to evict my roommate at the time, so we would converse about what we were going to do about our annoying roommate situation,” she said.

The day of the killing, Taylor said she woke up around 11 a.m., took her dogs outside and saw Welters lying on her trampoline.

“He was quite inebriated lying on the trampoline,” she said, adding this was not a common situation. “I was poking him and rubbing his back.”

Taylor brought out a glass of water and some cherries for Welters, but did not get much of a response from him.

“He made a couple of grunts, but he was not talking; he did not respond,” she said. “I figured he’d had a long night of drinking.”

When she went outside for the third time, Welters was gone.

Later in the day, people started arriving at the house for a barbecue with Ruff on the front porch.

While in the backyard, Taylor overheard an argument between Welters and Ruff about one of Ruff’s guests.

“Warren had come down the stairs and said, ‘Oh, not that f . . . ing whore again,’ and then there was tension between them after that,” said Taylor.

She recalled hearing Ruff respond angrily, but she could not recall what he said.

Later in the afternoon, Taylor’s friend and her two children came over and were hanging out in the backyard.

Suddenly, one of Ruff’s Friends, Harry Wallace, came running through the backyard to the shed, she said.

Minutes later, a paramedic came around to the back of the house.

“He stated, ‘I’m here for the guy with his head split open,’ and that drew my concern that there might be something that needed my attention upstairs,” said Taylor.

She went through the house and climbed the stairs to the upper unit, but was stopped by Ruff.

“He was saying, ‘Get the f . . . out of here,’” she said. “I was obviously concerned because of what I heard, and then Dan’s demeanour scared me more, and the fact that there was a ton of emergency people in the house was alarming, but I went downstairs, figuring the situation was being addressed by the firefighters, paramedics, whoever was up there and I wasn’t going to be needed, but I was very alarmed.”

During their encounter at the top of the stairs, Ruff appeared highly intoxicated, said Taylor.

“He was coming at my face, trying to make sure I didn’t enter the house in a really aggressive fashion, but the authorities were also there,” she said. “I could smell the hard liquor coming off his breath.”

Ruff, 65, is accused of hitting Welters, 51, in the back of the head with a hammer while he lay passed out on his bed.

He was arrested June 29, 2015, and is currently out on bail.

The trial continues.