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MURDER TRIAL

Witness recollection of 2020 North Shore stabbing spree cross-examined

Jun 11, 2025 | 4:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — The trial of a Kamloops man accused in a violent stabbing incident that killed one person and injured three others continued this week at the Kamloops Law Courts.

Michael Wayne Palmer is charged with one count of second-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder stemming from a March 2020 incident at an apartment complex on the city’s North Shore.

Palmer sat quietly in court Wednesday (June 11) as another witness who was at the Carson Crescent apartment on the evening of March 28, 2020 testified to the deadly chain of events.

Palmer is accused of fatally stabbing 59-year-old Kevin White and injuring three other men — Caleb Crookes, David Gronberg and Ian McKay — by stabbing them in their necks.

Wednesday saw Christine Gervais, the mother of Caleb Crookes, testify about what happened that night. Gervais explained to police that she was among the group hanging out at White’s apartment, as she’d been helping White recover after his recent neck surgery. She told officers at one point she went to a different apartment across the hall to have a glass of wine with another woman, who had reportedly come to the apartment gathering that night with Palmer.

That’s when the stabbing spree began, according to Crown’s opening statements, which described Palmer suddenly stabbing Crookes and McKay in the hallway before entering apartment 11 and stabbing Gronberg and White.

Gervais testified that she initially told police about finding McKay in the hallway after he’d been stabbed, finding White lying on a bed in his apartment and seeing a large amount of blood. The witness became emotional as she recalled learning White was dead.

Defense lawyer Iain Currie cross-examined Gervais on her recollection of statements she’d initially given to police. The trial is taking place five years after the incident and Gervais admitted she was unable to remember exact details of what she’d told police at the time.

Currie also inquired about whether or not she was drunk that evening and the witness replied that she had been .

The case is being heard by a judge and a 12-person jury. Last week, Crown presented extensive video and audio evidence from the officers who initially responded to the stabbing and arrested Palmer. Palmer could be heard on the recordings confessing to the killing and claiming he’d aimed for the carotid arteries on the people he’d stabbed.

The trial is scheduled to take five weeks before jury deliberations begin.