Photo: Castanet

Johnathon Vance was shot and killed at a Scotch Creek car wash with a semi-automatic nine millimetre handgun on June 25, 2021.

There’s no arguing a man was shot dead in Scotch Creek in 2021, but it will be up to a Kamloops jury to decide whether Paul Binder intended to kill when the fatal shot was fired.

John Vance, 32, was shot and killed at a Scotch Creek car wash with a semi-automatic nine millimetre handgun on June 25, 2021.

Binder was in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops on Monday for the opening day of a two-week jury trial, at which prosecutors will try to prove Binder intended to kill Vance.

“There's no mystery here about how Mr. Vance died. It's not in dispute in this trial that Mr. Binder was holding a gun that shot Mr. Vance in the chest once, causing Mr. Vance's death,” Crown prosecutor Laura Drake told jurors in her opening statement.

“I anticipate the issue for you to decide in this trial will be whether Mr. Binder intended to cause Mr. Vance's death, or whether Mr. Binder was acting in self defence.”

Shooting caught on camera

Drake said police officers who arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting found Vance halfway out of his truck with a machete on his belt and a shotgun next to him.

Drake said the jury will be shown photos of the scene and surveillance video of the shooting.

She said the video will show Binder and Vance inside the car wash before Binder walks back to his residence next door.

“You will then see on the video, Mr. Binder return around the corner of the car wash, raise a gun to shoulder height and then point it at Mr. Vance. On the video, you will see Mr. Vance, who is empty handed, being shot,” Drake said.

She said she plans to call the RCMP’s lead investigator on the case, officers who responded to the incident, a forensic video analyst and a number of friends who were inside Binder’s home at the time of the shooting.

She said a firearms expert who inspected the weapon will also testify.

“I anticipate that [the expert] will tell you that that gun was in essentially normal working condition and was not likely to have spontaneously discharged without force being applied to the trigger,” she said.

The trial continues on Tuesday.