Woman called for help, days before her death

Awaiting a ride to his mother’s house in the back of a police car, Jason McKay is heard threatening to assault officers and his wife Jenny McKay.

“I’m not abusive but I’ll f***g smack her in the head,” he is heard saying on the night of Aug. 27, 2017.

Shortly after, as police were attempting to drop him off at his mother’s, he is alleged to have squared off and lunged at police. He ended up back in the car, this time in handcuffs and under arrest.

Less than 10 days later, on Sept. 6, Jenny, 33, was dead and Jason, 47, was back inside a police car, this time charged with killing his wife at their Angus

Street home.

He is on trial for seconddegree murder at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench.

Much of the trial — before Justice Michael Tochor sitting without a jury — consists of a voir dire, or a trial within a trial intended to determine which evidence will be admissible at the trial proper. Much of the evidence called on Wednesday fell under a voir dire, including statements Jason was heard to make while in the company of various police officers.

Court heard from police who attended to three separate complaints at the couple’s home on Aug. 27 and 28, 2017, all called in by Jenny, a native of Truro. Jason graduated from the journalism program at Holland College

in 2004.

In the first, Const. Correy Wood testified police were told Jenny wanted Jason removed that afternoon because he was intoxicated and threatening his teenaged kids. Wood arrived to find both Jason and Jenny intoxicated, but no one wanting to make an official complaint.

When Jenny was offended by the officer’s suggestion she leave, Jason agreed to go to a neighbour’s.

Wood testified Jenny described the relationship as abusive.

“(She said) she didn’t feel safe, and she was trying to come up with an exit plan,” Wood told the court.

He testified she said she wasn’t yet ready to provide a statement.

Wood said a check revealed several previous domesticrelated incidents involving the couple, including an assault with a weapon charge laid against Jenny.

Jason went to a concert, but allegedly returned to the house that night, resulting in a second call to police at about 11 p.m.

Const. Jeremy Kerth testified police arranged to take Jason to his mother’s until he’d sobered up. En route, as shown on in-car video, Jason became highly agitated, complaining about Jenny calling the police, arguing he’d done nothing wrong and making comments about fighting police.

After the incident outside his mother’s, Jason spent the night in police cells.

Police were back at the house shortly before 8 a.m. the following morning. Const. Derek Doepker testified Jenny once again called the police, reporting Jason was intoxicated and had entered the house through a window. Doepker said he arrived to find her slightly intoxicated and stating, “Jason was abusive in the past and that she was afraid of him.”

Doepker said he talked to Jason who, fresh out of cells, was sober. He reportedly told Doepker his wife tended to call 911 on him “to get him in trouble.”

Jason agreed to go to his mother’s home, Doepker said.

The trial is ongoing with more arguments heard Thursday.