Roommate describes bloody struggle in fatal stabbing case
COURT: Burnaby woman victim of 39 stab wounds
An eyewitness to the fatal stabbing of a much-loved Burnaby community worker says she was awoken by the sound of screams coming from her roommate’s bedroom.
Chifumi Misawa testified Tuesday that she saw accused killer Ayelech Ejigu standing behind her roommate, Bayush Hagos, one of Ejigu’s arms around Hagos’s stomach.
“I could see blood is coming from her mouth,” she said of Hagos. “It was quite a bit of volume of blood.” Speaking through a Japanese interpreter, Misawa, 32, said the two women were swaying “front and back” and she could see Hagos had her hand on an object in front of her.
She could also see bloodstains on the floor and the wall.
In a faint voice, Hagos told her to call 911, Misawa told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies in Vancouver on the first day of Ejigu’s trial on second-degree murder charges.
Ejigu, who was staying at Hagos’ apartment temporarily until Hagos could find a shelter for her, entered a plea of not guilty to the September 2011 murder.
Crown counsel Tim McKelvey earlier told the judge that after Misawa called 911, the 911 operator told her to leave the apartment suite at 4134 Maywood Street in Burnaby.
RCMP officers arrived soon after and found Hagos, 57, lying face down behind her bed, unresponsive to verbal commands. There was a knife and a large amount of blood underneath her. She was shortly afterwards declared dead at the scene, having suffered 39 stab wounds. An officer who went out to the apartment’s balcony found Ejigu lying on the balcony, a knife in her hand, said McKelvey.
“She was shaking and groaning and tapping her head with the knife,” he said.
Another officer grabbed the knife, which had blood and hair on the knife blade, he said.
Ejigu had lacerations on her head and stomach, wounds that a pathologist later determined were self-inflicted, said McKelvey
Another blood-covered knife was found beside Ejigu’s thigh, said the prosecutor.
A total of three knives were found at the scene.
As Ejigu was being taken out on a stretcher, she was flailing her arms, making “incomprehensible” sounds and refusing to open her eyes.
At the time of the slaying, Ejigu, who had been released on bail, was in the middle of a trial on charges she had attempted to murder her husband by repeatedly stabbing him.
The trial had been moved to the Lower Mainland from Fort St. John.
Ejigu was later acquitted of the attempted murder charge after arguing that she was a battered wife acting in self-defence.
Ejigu was deemed fit to stand trial but “fragile” in the murder of Hagos.
The trial opened with the judge agreeing to order Ejigu’s continued detention in a psychiatric hospital instead of a jail. She appeared in court wearing a green tracksuit.
The trial is expected to hear from 11 Crown witnesses.