Jason Holm (l, Image Credit: Kamloops RCMP) and Paul Whitten (r, Image Credit: Contributed / Megan Parsons)

By James Peters

Murder Trial

Trial nears for man charged in 2020 killing of neighbour in downtown Kamloops

Feb 1, 2023 | 11:35 AM

KAMLOOPS — Pre-trial proceedings are underway in B.C. Supreme Court for a man charged in a 2020 downtown Kamloops homicide.

Jason Michael Holm is charged with second degree murder in the August 1, 2020 stabbing death of 39-year-old Paul Samuel Whitten Jr.

At the time, RCMP said Whitten was found in his Clarke St. home with stab wounds. An ambulance rushed Whitten to Royal Inland Hospital, where he died from his injuries.

Holm and Whitten were next-door neighbours, and RCMP say the killing was not related to organized crime or the drug trade.

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The day before the killing, Holm’s family had asked RCMP for a wellness check on him. RCMP went to his home but he was not there. The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. looked into potential RCMP actions or inactions and their impact on the killing, but found they had no bearing.

Whitten, a father of five, had moved to Kamloops from Newfoundland about a year before the killing, looking for work.

The trial is set to begin on March 20 and is scheduled to last four weeks.