"Nothing really out of the ordinary": roommate on accused killer
Credit to Author: Keith Fraser| Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 00:43:45 +0000
A former roommate of a man charged with murdering a Marpole couple says he noticed “nothing out of the ordinary” about the accused.
Darby Norton, who lived with Rocky Rambo Wei Nam Kam for several months in 2017, made the comment during his testimony Thursday at Kam’s trial in Vancouver.
Kam has pleaded not guilty to the September 2017 first-degree murder of Richard Jones, 68, a retired Vancouver man, and his wife, Dianna Mah-Jones, 64, an occupational therapist at GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre.
Under questioning from Crown counsel Daniel Mulligan, Norton said that Kam had moved into the house at 7608 Granville St. in late June 2017 and rented a room on the ground floor. Kam was carrying only a few things, possibly a knapsack and another bag with him, Norton told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Laura Gerow.
“I just recall he was travelling light … ,” Norton told the judge.
Over time, he came to learn that Kam was an immigrant from Hong Kong who had studied economics at the University of Alberta and believed that Kam had gotten a degree in economics. “He had what sounded like a nice family, a good family. I believe he had a sister and two parents.”
Norton, however, said he never met any of Kam’s family, and the accused never had any visitors at the home. The accused told him that he planned to look for a job using his university degree and had also mentioned the possibility of starting his own business, said Norton.
Courtroom sketch of Rocky Rambo Wei Nam Kam, charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of 68-year-old Richard Jones and 65-year-old Dianna Mah-Jones, in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday.
He said he frequently saw Kam working on his laptop in the kitchen and assumed he was applying for jobs and, after the internet connection improved, he started using the computer in his bedroom instead of the kitchen. Norton said he approached Kam about helping him work in the moving business and Kam helped him a number of times but didn’t believe that Kam worked with him much after Sept. 1, 2017.
“Was there a fallout or any problem that caused you to stop working with him?” asked Mulligan.
“No, I never had any problem with Rocky,” said Norton.
Asked if he had any conflicts with Kam, Norton said that conflicts were “very minimal” and cited one case where he was irritated when Kam put the garbage in the wrong bin.
“Did you make any observations of any unusual behaviour from Rocky while he was living there,” said Mulligan.
“Just that he seemed to be getting up later at some point after he stopped being in the kitchen,” said Norton. “Nothing really out of the ordinary.”
The Crown’s theory is that for unknown reasons Kam targeted the couple and murdered them in their own home on West 64th Avenue, which was about one kilometre from the home where Kam was living.
Earlier, several police officers testified about the grisly discovery of the bodies of the couple in their bathroom after a co-worker of Mah-Jones had dropped by the home when she failed to show up for work.
The accused was initially charged with two counts of second-degree murder but the Crown upgraded the charges in 2018. The trial is expected to continue Friday.