Girl who stabbed man initially told investigator she didn’t kill him

At the end of an interview that lasted more than three hours, an 18-year-old girl told a major crimes investigator she was in the truck with Patrick Dong when he was driven outside Saskatoon, but that she didn’t kill him.

The video-recorded interview on June 7, 2017, was played on Monday during the second week of the girl’s judge-alone trial in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench. In the video, she had just been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with Dong’s death.

“Did they give Patrick a chance to get away? Did you give him a chance to get away?” Cpl. Christopher Hansen asked the girl.

“He was alive when we left,” the accused said.

She told Hansen she last saw Dong walking away with a limp.

The 37-year-old was found in a ditch on Hodgson Road, southwest of Saskatoon, on Oct. 23, 2016.

The accused was lying when she told Hansen she didn’t kill Dong. The agreed facts presented at the trial’s outset state the girl has admitted stabbing Dong six times in the leg, thereby causing his death. She cannot be identified because she was 17 years old at the time.

The Crown is seeking to prove the killing was first-degree murder. Prosecutor Michael Pilon told Justice Shawn Smith that the Crown must present all its evidence, despite the girl’s admission, because it’s not known what defence will be offered.

Her confession to the stabbing — contained in a cellmate conversation between the accused and an undercover officer — is expected to be heard on Tuesday. During her first interview, the girl said she had been using methamphetamine for more than a year. Hansen told her everyone in the truck on the night Dong died was “wasted.”

Defence lawyer Carson Demmans asked Hansen where he got this information. Hansen said there was no basis for the statement.

Witnesses hesitated to co-operate because of their involvement in the drug world, the officer testified. The trial has heard more than 80 interviews were conducted before any charges were laid in connection with Dong ’s death.