"I guess I’m dying."
Those were the last words 25-year-old Melissa Blimkie ever spoke after being stabbed in a stairwell at Burnaby's Metrotown mall shortly after 11:40 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2021.
She uttered them to two strangers who – following her screams – had come upon her clutching her bleeding abdomen.
By the time emergency crews arrived, Blimkie was unresponsive.
She was pronounced dead at Royal Columbian Hospital a short time later.
The second-degree murder trial of Blimkie's accused killer, her boyfriend Everton Javaun Downey, 33, began in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver Tuesday.
Before any witnesses were called, Crown prosecutor Brendan McCabe read out a long list of facts Downey has admitted and that will now not need to be proven during the trial.
Among them was the account of Blimkie's last moments – and the admission that Downey did stab her in the Metrotown mall stairwell that morning.
At the beginning of the trial, however, Downey pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in her death.
"Although Mr. Downey admits to stabbing Ms. Blimkie, he does not admit how many times he stabbed her or that he caused her death," Mark Myhre told Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes, who is presiding over the judge-alone trial.
Myhre said the admissions Downey has already made combined with the testimony of a pathologist who will be called as a witness will make it a "very straightforward finding" that Downey did kill Blimkie.
The main issue during the trial, according to Myhre, will be Downey's mental state at the time he stabbed her – whether he was suffering from a mental disorder rendering him not criminally responsible or whether he had the criminal intent to commit murder.
Downey fled the scene immediately after the stabbing and made his way around Metrotown, interacting with multiple people before being arrested about one hour after the stabbing, according to the admissions.
Myhre told Holmes the first witnesses the Crown will call are eight civilians and two police officers who interacted with Downey that day.
"Given what's at issue, the Crown will really be focusing on how Mr. Downey was acting, his demeanor, as much as we can get of what he said and did," Myhre said.
Downey's lawyers have not yet outlined their defence.
The trial is expected to continue tomorrow.
This article has been corrected. The original stated defence lawyer Chris Johnson read out the admissions of fact. Statements made by Crown prosecutor Mark Myhre were also incorrectly attributed to Crown prosecutor Brendan McCabe.
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