Three Burnaby residents startled by a stranger entering their apartments on the day of a fatal stabbing at the Metrotown mall in December 2021 told their stories at a Vancouver murder trial Thursday.
Everton Javaun Downey, 33, is on trial in B.C. Supreme Court for second-degree murder in the stabbing death of 25-year-old Melissa Blimkie in a Metrotown mall stairwell on Dec. 19, 2021.
Downey has admitted to stabbing Blimkie at about 11:38 a.m. that day but has pleaded not guilty to second degree murder.
According to admissions of fact presented at the beginning of the trial Tuesday, Downey fled the scene after the stabbing and interacted with nine civilians around Metrotown before his arrest at about 12:30 p.m.
'Someone inside the bedroom'
Marian Arevalo told the court she was in the bedroom of her Dow Street apartment when a man entered through the open window.
"He looked surprised when he saw that there was someone inside the bedroom," she said through a Tagalog interpreter.
The man tried to get back out of the window but couldn't, according to Arevalo.
She said she told him to "get out" and tried to push him out of the bedroom door.
But the man said he was bleeding and needed help, according to Arevalo.
She said he wanted to use the bathroom, but she told him again to get out.
At one point, he pointed a handgun at her chest and told her to drop her cell phone, but Arevalo said it looked like a "plastic gun."
Under cross examination, she said she thought it might have been a pellet gun.
Arevalo said she eventually managed to lock herself in the bathroom when the man was in the bedroom.
'I wanted to hide'
Meanwhile, Joshua Abadilla was playing video games in the living room of the same apartment.
He told the court he heard voices in the bedroom.
Abadilla called police and then saw an unknown man emerge from the bedroom.
"I wanted to hide, but there was no place for me to hide there," Abadilla said through a Tagalog interpreter.
The man asked him twice to use the washroom so he could wash his hands, but Abadilla told him to get out of the apartment.
Abadilla said he could see the man's hands were shaking.
The man eventually left through the front door, according to Abadilla.
'What the f***? Get out!'
Less than a kilometre away, Marcial Aguinaldo was in his apartment on Maywood Street when an unknown man came in the door without knocking.
"I will not hurt you. I will not hurt you. I will only stay here for 20 minutes. I will not hurt you," the man said, according to Aguinaldo, who also testified through a Tagalog interpreter.
"No, no, no! What the f***? Get out!" Aguinaldo replied.
The man told him he was hurt, and Aguinaldo said he noticed a bandage with blood on one of his hands.
Aguinaldo said the man seemed scared and acted as though he was hiding from someone.
The men's raised voices drew Aguinaldo's wife into the room, according to Aguinaldo, and the man left the apartment.
According to the admissions of fact, Downey then entered another unit in the same apartment.
Ulinnah Rohmat was in the living room of that unit watching TV with his young child when Downey walked in the front door.
Rohmat told him to leave, but Downey just stood there and said words to the effect of "Please, please, no."
Rohmat noticed what he thought was blood on Downey's hands.
At one point, Downey picked up a bottle of water sitting nearby, drank from it and walked back out the front door.
'Someone's trying to kill me'
Downey then made his way to an apartment building on Willingdon Avenue a short distance away.
Amrit Immaraju told the court he and his family were in the living room getting ready to go to a Christmas concert.
The window was open but secured with a metal mesh screen.
Immaraju said he heard someone run up to the window and saw a man bang on the screen.
"Please help me; someone’s trying to kill me," the man said, according to Immaraju.
Immarju said he told the man "No," and the man ran away in the direction of Central Park.
'I'm turning myself in'
Downey turned himself in to police a short time later.
Const. Junjie Hu and Const. Julie Turtle with the Metro Vancouver Transit Police located him walking west on Beresford Street approaching Wilson Avenue.
Hu told the court Thursday that Downey waved his hands at them as they approached in a marked police vehicle.
Because the officers had been warned Downey might be armed with a knife or gun, Hu said he drew his pistol and ordered Downey onto the ground.
"Why are you handcuffing me? I'm turning myself in," Downey said, according to Turtle's testimony Thursday.
Both Hu and Turtle said Downey was cooperative and complied with their commands and both said Downey did not appear to be intoxicated by drugs or alcohol.
Downey's trial continues Friday.
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