Accused took 'pleasure' in attacking Marpole murder victim: Crown
Credit to Author: Keith Fraser| Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2020 01:24:55 +0000
A man accused of murdering a couple in Vancouver’s Marpole neighbourhood took pleasure in attacking one of the victims, a prosecutor suggested Tuesday.
Rocky Rambo Wei Nam Kam, 29, has pleaded not guilty to the September 2017 first-degree murders of Richard Jones, 68, and his wife, Dianna Mah-Jones, 64.
The accused has testified that he was out walking in the Marpole neighbourhood one evening when he decided to attack Mah-Jones as she got out of her car and entered her home with groceries.
He told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Laura Gerow that during a struggle, he grabbed Mah-Jones around the neck and later stabbed her in the throat with a knife.
Kam, who is claiming that he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time arising from his addiction to video games, said that he attacked Jones when he entered the back of the home, stabbing him repeatedly. Court heard that Jones suffered more than 100 stab wounds.
During the second day of cross-examination Tuesday, Kam at first agreed with Crown counsel Daniel Mulligan that he was stabbing Jones because he wanted to kill him.
“I’m going to suggest to you that you were stabbing Mr. Jones in a very controlled and methodical way,” said Mulligan.
“I don’t understand what you mean by methodical,” said Kam.
The prosecutor suggested to Kam that he was taking his time during the attack and wanted to inflict pain and suffering.
“I don’t think I have that kind of knowledge to perform such behaviour,” said Kam. “I know being stabbed is supposed to be painful, but if you’re saying I’m trying to prolong the pain, that’s not something I know how to do.”
Mulligan took Kam through a series of grisly autopsy photos, with the accused calmly examining the photos and then giving his answers to the prosecutor’s questions.
He suggested that the reason Kam inflicted so many superficial stab wounds to Jones’ legs was that he was “taking pleasure” inflicting pain on his victim.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Kam.
Dianna Mah-Jones, 65, and Richard Jones, 68, were found dead in their Marpole home.
“Well, you certainly weren’t trying to cause him to die by cutting his legs, were you?” said Mulligan.
“I just kept stabbing and at some point I wondered why he wasn’t going to die. … I go back to the living room and pick up the hatchet and attack him in the neck,” said Kam.
Earlier Tuesday, Mulligan asked Kam why he had picked Mah-Jones to attack, suggesting it was because she was a smaller, older woman.
The accused said he had encountered other older women while he was out walking and hadn’t attacked them.
“I wouldn’t say I know exactly as to why I attacked Dianna Mah-Jones,” Kam told the judge.
Kam denied Mulligan’s suggestion that the victim reminded him of his mother, whom he loathed.
The accused testified that when Mah-Jones got out of her car and went into the house, he hid behind a tree and then got a hatchet out of his backpack.
“So it wasn’t like you were able to just push a button on your keyboard and make a hatchet materialize in your hand,” said Mulligan, an apparent reference to the defence theory that Kam believed he was in a video game when he killed the couple.
“Like I say, I don’t remember whether I spent too much time finding the hatchet or whether I just pulled it out,” said Kam.
“Was it like you just pushed a button and the hatchet just appeared in your hand?” said Mulligan.
“I don’t have such feelings,” said Kam.
When Mulligan asked him whether he felt it was like a video game, Kam said he didn’t know what the prosecutor was talking about.
“Just like I said, you didn’t push a button and a hatchet appeared in your hand, did you?” said Mulligan.
“No, I didn’t push a button,” said Kam.
The trial is expected to continue Wednesday.