RCMP cordon off a crime scene using police tape in this file photo.JOHN LEHMANN
The bed Lynn Kalmring shared with her boyfriend was stained with blood and littered with a gun, towel and bloody bathrobe when RCMP discovered her body, a jury heard Monday in Kelowna.
Const. Michael Nelson was the first to enter the Penticton house on Aug. 16, 2011, after Keith Wiens, the boyfriend and a former Mountie, phoned 911 and walked out with his hands up. Nelson called out "police" with both hands on his pistol and checked several rooms before he stood next to Kalmring's body.
The 55-year-old woman was on the floor in the doorway to her master bedroom, said Nelson. She was lying on her right side with her right arm to the side and her left arm extended out. A knife was in her left hand, pointing down.
"I see quite a lot of blood around her hand. There's pooling of blood and blood spatter as well," Nelson said. "The trauma was pretty significant. I was pretty confident she was deceased."
Nelson said he removed a glove to check her pulse and detected none. The bullet had penetrated her left eye. Nelson radioed paramedics that she was probably dead.
Wiens, on trial for second-degree murder, had told the 911 operator the gun was on the bed. He said he wasn't going to hurt police and promised to co-operate, Nelson said.
The officer said he and and other officer, Cpl. Don Wrigglesworth, had trouble finding the house at first.
The dispatcher told them shots were fired and there was one person down in a gated community on South Main Street. The entry code failed to activate the gate, so the men had to scale a 2.4-metre wall.
Wiens described to the dispatcher his black Cavalier parked outside so the officers could locate the home. Wiens was seen through a window walking around with the phone. He told the dispatcher he didn't want to get hurt and agreed to come out with his hands up.
The retired Mountie then appeared at the front door and announced he wasn't armed. Wrigglesworth ordered him to walk to the street and lie on his stomach with his hands behind his back. Nelson handcuffed him.
The constable then went in the house and smelled gunpowder. A small dog was barking under the couple's bed. After finding Kalmring, he went back out and asked Wrigglesworth to check her pulse. He confirmed she was dead.
Once Wiens, 57, was placed in a patrol car, the two officers returned to the bedroom to remove the dog. Nelson said he had to "bound" over Kalmring's body and blood on the floor so he wouldn't disturb the evidence. The lap dog, a Pomeranian, bit Nelson, but he and Wrigglesworth managed to coax the animal into a dog cage.
The seven women and five men representing the jury also flipped through books of graphic photographs on Monday as forensic expert Cpl. France Burke testified. Burke said he took swabs of suspected gunshot residue from Wiens's hands and face soon after he arrived at the RCMP detachment. She took pictures of his underwear, which had a bloodstain, the jeans he wore when he left the house and a belt, she said.
Wiens had no injuries, Burke said.
In the home, Burke found no sign of forced entry or a disturbance except in the bedroom. A bottle of vodka that was a quarter full was on the kitchen counter. A bill and other documents were on the island. So were $2,005 in American bills and an engagement ring on top of them, Burke said.
Blood was spattered on the bedroom door and wall. Burke found blood along the bedspread. Red stains streaked down the mattress to the bed frame. The robe at the foot of the bed was bloodstained.
The nightie Kalmring wore was stained with blood, as were her legs and the knuckle area of her right hand. A large pool of blood formed above her head, Burke said.
Burke also said the back of the knife handle rested against Kalmring's palm and leaned toward her fingers. The handgun was in its holster on the bed. A small, wet cloth soaked the edge of the bed.
The B.C. Supreme Court trial is expected to continue.