Surveillance video of accused Marpole double-murderer released to media
Credit to Author: Keith Fraser| Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2019 00:22:38 +0000
Surveillance video that the Crown argues helps implicate a man in the murder of a Marpole couple was released to the media Tuesday.
On Monday, the Crown played video that they say shows Rocky Rambo Wei Nam Kam purchasing a number of items at a Canadian Tire store on Sept. 13, 2017, nearly two weeks before the bodies of Richard Jones, 68, and his wife, Dianna Mah-Jones, 64, were discovered in their home at 1243 West 64th Ave.
The Crown theory is that Kam bought a hatchet at the store of the type that was used in the apparently random attack on the couple. A bloody hatchet was seized by police from the front yard of the home along with a knife.
The video footage also purportedly shows Kam buying a baseball cap that the Crown alleges was of the type found at the scene, as well as some gardening gloves that the Crown alleges were the sort used by the accused.
The Crown says that DNA testing has revealed that the blood of the victims was found on the hatchet seized by police and also on the cap that was located in the kitchen of the home.
On Tuesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Laura Gerow ordered that copies of the video be provided to several media outlets, including Postmedia News, which had applied for access to the court exhibit. The Crown had taken no position on the media application and defence lawyer Glen Orris raised no objections either.
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, September 25, 2019.
Also on Tuesday, Vancouver police Det. Simon Cracknell offered the opinion that the person seen in the video is Kam, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. Cracknell testified that he had visited the store and obtained the video, and reviewed the video numerous times.
He said he was also part of a team of police officers who arrested Kam on Nov. 6, 2017, and had a number of interactions with him that allowed him to make the identification. Asked by Crown counsel Jeff LaPorte whether he saw anyone in the courtroom who resembled the person in the video, he pointed to Kam, who was seated in the prisoner’s dock.
After a submission from the Crown, the judge ruled that Cracknell’s opinion on the identification of Kam could be admitted at the trial. Orris, who had not objected to the admissibility of the officer’s opinion, said the only issue was how much weight should be given to the evidence.
Vancouver police Const. Amy Harris, a forensic evidence technician, testified about photos she took at the crime scene, as well as photos of the accused’s house and of the accused when he was arrested by police.
She said that a test of red stains on the glasses that were seized from Kam revealed the possible presence of blood. According to the Crown, Mah-Jones’s DNA profile was identified from a bloodstain on the hinge of the glasses.
Harris said that on Nov. 29, 2017, she went to the North Fraser Pre-Trial Centre to help execute a warrant to obtain a DNA sample from Kam. Asked by Crown counsel Daniel Mulligan about Kam’s demeanour, she said that he was not asking very many questions and offering one-word responses to questions asked of him.
The first of several Crown witnesses dealing with DNA evidence took the stand Tuesday afternoon.