Jury hears victim at centre of Kamloops manslaughter trial was ‘highly intoxicated’

Crown prosecutor Frank Caputo didn’t hold back in his cross examination of Bond Monday, suggesting that the amount of drugs and alcohol he consumed the evening of Dec. 29 led to his judgement and perception being significantly skewed.

Bond walked the B.C. Supreme Court jury through that night, and the moments leading up to the death of 42-year-old Dunn. During direct and cross examination, Bond also narrated different segments of surveillance footage that captured his dealings with Dunn from inside and outside the bar.

Throughout his testimony, Bond maintained Dunn was causing problems for his group the whole night. Bond and Pendrak had been drinking through most of the day before showing up to The Duchess that evening, Bond testified.

Shortly after they got there, Bond’s girlfriend Sarah Hupe arrived and the trio socialized while having drinks. When questioned about how much alcohol he consumed that day, Bond agreed with Caputo that it could have been as many as 18 drinks by the time he left The Duchess later that night. He couldn’t remember how much cocaine he used, or when.

The group met Dunn shortly after 1:00 a.m. on Dec. 30, but Bond couldn’t recall if he used cocaine before meeting him. Dunn met Hupe when Bond’s group went over to Dunn’s group to play pool for the table. Bond said from his observation, Dunn was “very intrigued by her” and was “flirting with her”.

Dunn bumped into Hupe — Bond believed intentionally — and after that Bond told Dunn she was his girlfriend.

While Dunn was playing pool, Bond said Dunn intentionally pushed his cue into Hupe’s crotch, but Dunn later explained to Bond he was just trying to take a shot.

Caputo asked Bond if he was proud to have Hupe as his girlfriend, if he wanted people to know that she was his. He said yes.

“When you approached him, you didn’t say something like, ‘Hey, she didn’t appreciate that’,” Caputo said. “You were focused on the fact that he was hitting on your girlfriend.”

He said his first impression of Dunn was that he was drunk and annoying. He disagreed with Caputo who suggested that Dunn was “hammered” but after re-watching the surveillance footage, Bond agreed Dunn was quite drunk.

Bond said he didn’t notice at the time that Dunn seemed to be stumbling around and was having difficulties walking.

It was his duty to protect Hupe from the situation, Bond said, but added the group didn’t leave the table right away because it wasn’t “that big of a deal” at that point.

Bond agreed with Caputo that he didn’t like Dunn off the get go, and could foresee there would be some problems throughout the night. He agreed there was a good chance he would have had to deal with Dunn, and it could turn physical.

Bond said he took Dunn hitting on Hupe in front of him as “10 out of 10” offensive, and had approached the bouncer at least twice through the night to get Dunn to stay away from them.

Caputo then moved on to Bond’s relationship with Hupe in general, pointing to money being a stressor, although Bond said it didn’t lead to fights between the pair. He added that jealousy was never an issue in their relationship.

“Jealousy was not an issue between the two of you?” Caputo asked.

“No,” Bond responded, which contradicted Pendrak’s testimony that Hupe and Bond had gotten into a fight while he was visiting, regarding Hupe seeing other men.

Roughly an hour after the group met Dunn, Bond testified, he came back around to the group and Hupe seemed to be getting aggravated, which led to her hitting him.

“He keeps coming around and he’s staring at her,” Bond said.

Bond said Dunn stared at Hupe for at least one minute, if not longer. However surveillance footage showed Dunn hadn’t been staring at Hupe at all at this point. Instead, he was seen having conversations with other men and putting his head in between his legs, apparently from being so intoxicated, Caputo said.

After viewing the video, Bond agreed Dunn wasn’t being aggressive at all at this point.

At a later point in the night, Bond said he and Dunn exchanged words before Bond went to a table of drug dealers to purchase cocaine, although he doesn’t remember if he actually got some, and doesn’t recall what was said between them but said it “wasn’t friendly”.

Caputo argued that Bond didn’t take issue with how Hupe was being treated as a woman — he took issue with how it was his girlfriend that Dunn was flirting with.

Bond’s trial is expected to last through the week.

by Ashley Legassic

Jury hears victim at centre of Kamloops manslaughter trial was ‘highly intoxicated’

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