Officer initially puzzled how murder victim had died
As the first officer on the scene of a collision between a car and a power pole, Regina Police Service Const. Jessica Sabo recalled seeing a man unmoving in the front passenger seat.
His hands and lips were blue and she observed burn scars on him that helped her to quickly identify 30-year-old Denny Troy Jimmy — seriously injured in a fire as a child.
While she was certain he was already dead, she had no idea how it had happened.
“There was no blood,” she testified. “There was no injury on him. There was no foaming at the mouth which is sometimes there when there's an overdose. There was nothing.”
At least, nothing apparent. That changed, said Sgt. Jason Gunderson, once a coroner was on hand for the removal of Jimmy's body from the vehicle. While they were removing Jimmy's shirt, Gunderson noted a “significant hole” he recognized to be a gunshot wound in the man's back, around the shoulder area.
“It changed the scope of our investigation at that time,” he said.
Bill Burge — Crown prosecutor on the second-degree murder trial for 28-year-old Adam Tyler Michael Taniskishayinew — told the court Jimmy died from a gunshot wound.
Taniskishayinew's trial, which began on Monday at Regina Court of Queen's Bench, was originally supposed to be held before a jury. With Queen's Bench having suspended jury trials due to COVID -19 restrictions, a re-election was made to hold the trial before a judge sitting without a jury.
Burge outlined what he expects the court to hear over the course of the trial, currently set for two weeks. Burge told Justice Michael Tochor he plans to show Taniskishayinew was seen at the Normanview Smitty's with Jimmy and a second man on the evening of the homicide — June 11, 2019. Shortly after they left, Jimmy suffered a fatal shotgun wound to the back.
While the nature of the defence Taniskishayinew will present hasn't yet been described, defence lawyer Bruce Campbell pointed to video taken in a police car showing his client appearing agitated and even panicky while speaking to police officers following his arrest shortly after the incident. Sabo and Const. Derrick Fox — among officers who dealt with Taniskishayinew that evening — told the court they remembered his eyes darting, his speech being erratic and his actions jumpy and panicky.
Fox, the arresting officer, said he believed Taniskishayinew was on meth at the time. Court heard Taniskishayinew was taken to hospital as a precaution.
There was initially some question as to how many people ran from the car Jimmy was found in, with a witness reporting three but later correcting herself to two. The other reported occupant is expected to testify later in the trial.
Also on Monday, court heard from a man who lived near the scene of the incident, which happened in the mouth of an alley near the intersection of Lindsay Street and 5th Avenue. The witness said he saw a man running down the street while removing his zippered sweater, leaving him in a sleeveless shirt — the same type of clothing Taniskishayinew was wearing upon his arrest. Fox said Taniskishayinew was carrying his hoodie when he was arrested.
An officer with the RPS forensic identification section said she identified a substance presumed to be blood on the hoodie.
Burge said evidence will include DNA related to a hoodie as well as, among other items, a sawedoff shotgun. The latter reportedly was found to contain the DNA of both Jimmy and Taniskishayinew.