Kelowna

Photo: Wayne Moore

The house where Evan Wilkes was fatally shot

A witness in the Trevor Shannon second degree murder trial, has admitted he lied at the previous trial.

Curtis Blanchette, who is to be called as a witness in the new trial, went to the Kelowna RCMP detachment Wednesday and told police he had lied during his testimony, back in 2008.

A friend of Blanchette's, Taylor Henderson, was the first of the party goer witnesses to take the stand on Thursday. Henderson was the person who was hosting the grad party, at his parent's house where the incident took place.

Defense lawyer Brent Bagnall, asked Henderson if he was aware his friend had changed his original statement and gone to police, to which Henderson replied he did not.

Crown Council, questioned Henderson first, about the timeline of the events, the night Evan Wilkes was fatally shot in the head.

Henderson explained that party goer, Parker Burrows was being obnoxious and was told to calm down or he would have to leave. Then Shannon arrived with two friends, all were unknown to Henderson. The witness stated that he found it odd that the trio arrived with a dog.

An altercation soon took place in the kitchen of Henderson's parent's home, but Henderson says he was unable to see what was taking place as he was stuck in the laundry room.

What Henderson did tell the court was that he could see Shannon pull a gun from his pocket and placed it sideways at Burrows head. The altercation then moved out of the house to the street, where Henderson says he saw Wilkes standing talking to Shannon.

Henderson testified that he went into the kitchen to call 911, as he thought things were getting out of hand when he heard a loud bang, he turned to look out the window and saw Wilkes lying on the driveway. 

Crown asks Henderson if he can see Shannon with a gun, Henderson replies he can sort of see Shannon, but no gun.

According to Henderson Shannon's two friends took off in a vehicle, abandoning Shannon at the scene. Shannon then apparently took off down an alley, and Henderson followed after him, claiming he didn't want him to get away.

Henderson says as he and a friend were following Shannon, the accused turned around and pointed a gun at them. Henderson says he was scared, but still determined to track Shannon down he went and got his mother's car to drive after the suspected shooter. Not far from the house where the incident took place, Henderson says he ran into police who appeared to be apprehending Shannon.

On cross examination, Bagnall tries to question the validity of Henderson's testimony saying the Kelowna Secondary graduate gave a different statement to police that night as well as gave different information to a reporter of the Daily Courier, than what was heard in court.

According to an interview by the Daily Courier, who spoke to Henderson a few days after the incident, the man thought the gun was a pellet gun and not real.

The article written back in 2007, states Shannon pointed the gun at Wilkes stomach, but then Wilkes was somehow shot in the head. Henderson also told the paper, that he saw Shannon looking frantic after the loud band, "like he didn't know what he did." All of these statements Henderson did not tell the court during examination by the Crown.

In Henderson's police statement, he said he yelled at Shannon, "What did you do to Evan?", to which Shannon allegedly replied "Evan is fine. He will get up."

In court on Thursday, Henderson testified he never spoke to Shannon at all, even when he was chasing him down the ally.

Before Henderson took the stand, Crown called two RCMP officers to testify. 

Cst. Heaton, who is no longer with the RCMP, testified she was the first on scene and found Wilkes with a towel around his head while he lay in the driveway of a home on Vimy Road.

Heaton told the court, Wilkes was extremely intoxicated, but was able to talk to her saying, ' please don't let me die'.

Heaton says she saw a large hole in the man's head and that he was bleeding profusely. Wilkes apparently vomited while Heaton was tending to him, and the vomit smelled of alcohol. The former Mountie, also explained that she pulled what appeared to be a bag of marijuana from Wilkes' pocket along with a pack of cigarettes.

Cpl. Bill Parmar was also called to the stand, he served as the exhibit officer on the case.

Parmar says with the use of a metal detector, a .45 caliber semi automatic gun was found buried in the sand by a dock, near the beach access off of Cadder Ave.

The gun, did not have any bullets in the clip or the chamber, according to Parmar.

The officer also collected a blue sweater, that the accused was wearing on the evening of the incident. Parmar placed his hands in the pockets of the sweater, showing the jury the pockets were shallow.

Shannon is said to have had the gun in the pockets of the blue sweater.

The trial is to continue until June 29.